HUMAN CAPITAL FLIGHT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA

Abstract

In order for economic growth to be sustained, countries adopt every possible measure to retain their human capital – which has not been the case of Nigeria. This study examined the impact of human capital flight on economic growth in Nigeria from 1990 to 2022. Using the auto regressive distributed lag model, the findings of the study showed that human capital flight has no significant impact on economic growth in Nigeria in lag one and two. However, in the third lag, the reverse is the case. Human capital flight had a significant impact on economic growth in Nigeria during that period. More so, evidence from the Granger causality test showed 
that net migration does not Granger cause real GDP but RGDP Granger causes net migration.  Also, unemployment does not Granger cause human capital flight, infrastructure Granger causes human capital flight, poverty rate Granger causes human capital flight but human capital flight and access to education does not have any causal relationship. Therefore, the study recommended among others that increased investment in infrastructural facilities in the country will reduce the rate of human capital flight vis-à-vis, economic growth of the country.