Illicit Capital Streams on Nigerian Economic Growth

This study examined the impact of illicit capital streams on Nigerian economic growth from the period of 1991 to 2021 (30years). Specifically, the measures of illicit capital streams, namely; Trade Mispricing (TM), Revenue from Illegal Resource Exploitation (RIRE), Net Proceed of Corruption (NPC), International Crime (IC), Tax Evasion (TE) and Money Laundering (ML) were analyzed in relation Nigerian economic growth proxied Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP). The data was collected from the Global Financial Integrity annual statistics data base for the period 1991-2021 (30years). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, followed by the correlation analysis in bids to ascertained the co-movement of the measures illicit capital streams; TM, RIRE, NPC, IC, TE and ML in relation to the Nigerian economic growth proxied with RGDP and several diagnostics tests conducted in the bids to ascertain if the data are suitable for regression analysis with the aid of E-VIEW version 9.0. The findings showed that the measurements of illegal capital streams used in this research have conflicting implications on the RGDP in Nigeria. However, RIRE and ML, have a considerable impact on RGDP in Nigeria, even if while TM, NPC, IC and TE have an insignificant impacts. Therefore, the study came to the conclusion that illicit capital streams have an inconsiderable effect on the Nigerian economy. It is recommended that the government should set a strong independent body that cannot be influenced by the government, government officials (serving and retired), rich multinational corporations with sole responsibility to tackle the menace of illicit financial flows in the country.