A Study on Pension Fund Investment and Economic Development in Nigeria

This study examined the link between pension fund investment and Nigeria’s economic development. The main objective of the study is to determine the relationship between Pension Fund Investment and economic development in Nigeria between 2006- 2022. Precisely, the specific objectives are ; firstly to determine the impact of pension fund investments on economic development in Nigeria, secondly to determine the long run relationship between Pension fund investments and financial development in spurring economic development in Nigeria and thirdly to assess the causality relationship between pension fund investments and economic development in Nigeria. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was used as a stand in for economic development and it serves as our dependent variable, while Total Pension Fund Assets (TPFA), Market Capitalization (MC), Inflation Rate (IFR) and Real Interest Rate (RIR) were taken into consideration as the independent variables. for pension fund investments Using Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) model, the study found out that .Pension fund investment has no significant impact on Nigeria's economic development but there is a significant long run relationship between financial development and pension fund investment in spurring economic development in Nigeria . Furthermore, the findings of the causality test point to the absence of causation between pension fund investments and economic development in Nigeria. Therefore in order to to support the impact of pension fund investment on economic development in Nigeria, the government and regulators should encourage pension funds to invest for the long term, rather than focusing on short-term returns as we observed from our results that there is a greater percentage of returns in the long run rather than the short run. it is also advised that the regulatory body should promote greater transparency in the management of pension funds. .