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The Relationship Between Governments’ Budgetary Allocations to Education and Educational Outcomes in Nigeria: An ARDL Approach

Dr. C.O.K Ibidapo O.A. Akinmuyisitan

Subject area: Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities  ·  Area of research: Economics and Education

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV10I2-1722643

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between government budgetary allocation to education and education outcomes in Nigeria from 1990 to 2024. The study employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique to examine both the short-run and long-run relationships among education outcomes, government education expenditure, GDP per capita, population growth and inflation. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller test established that the variables were integrated at mixed orders of I(0) and I(1), providing justification for the ARDL approach. The bounds test produced an F-statistic of 4.778, which exceeded the 5% upper-bound critical value, confirming the existence of a long-run relationship among the variables. The long-run results showed that government education expenditure had a positive but statistically insignificant relationship with education outcomes. In the short run, population growth had a positive and statistically significant effect. The error-correction coefficient was negative and statistically significant at -0.931, indicating rapid adjustment towards long-run equilibrium, with approximately 93.1% of disequilibrium corrected within one year. The study concludes that increasing education expenditure alone may not guarantee improved educational outcomes and recommends greater emphasis on efficient allocation, implementation, monitoring and accountability of education resources.

Keywords

government expenditure; education outcomes; education financing; ARDL; nigeria; population growth; education policy.

References

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[2] Businessday NG. (2026). Public spending and early childhood development in Nigeria. Businessday. https://businessday.ng/education/article/public- spending-and-early-childhood-development-in- nigeria/

[3] Dataphyte. (2025). Nigeria's education budget still falls short of UNESCO benchmark in 2025. Dataphyte. https://www.dataphyte.com/topic/education/nig erias-education-budget-still-falls-short-of- unesco-benchmark-in-2025

[4] Ebi, B. O. (2017). Education expenditure and access to education: Case study of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization declaration in Nigeria. International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 7(5), 35–45.

[5] Emehelu, C. I., & Oboreh, L. E. (2023). Analyses of Nigeria's knowledge economy: Does public expenses on education matter in education outcome? UBS Journal of Business and Economic Policy, 1(4), 15–28.

[6] Farayibi, A. O., & Folarin, O. (2021). Does government education expenditure affect educational outcomes? New evidence from sub- Saharan African countries. African Development Review, 33, 546–559.

[7] Hanush, E., & Woessmann, L. (2020). The economic impacts of learning: How schools matter for economic growth. MIT Press.

[8] Nwachukwu, C. I., Okoro, J. A., & Adeleke, M. T. (2024). Government expenditure on education and human capital development in Sub-Saharan Africa: An ARDL approach. Journal of African Economic Studies, 12(2), 45–62.

[9] Ohaegbulem, E. U. (2024). Comparing the budgetary allocations to the education sector of Nigeria and some African countries (1999– 2021) in view of UNESCO's benchmarks. American Journal of Applied Statistics and Economics, 3(1), 15 –23. https://

[10] Ohaegbulem, E. U., & Chijioke, S. C. (2023). On Nigeria's budgetary allocations to the education sector (1960–2023) in view of UNESCO's benchmarks. International Journal of Mathematics and Statistics Studies, 11(4), 32–44.

[11] Ojonago, Musa, D., Onoja, S., & Babatunde Olaoluwa, O. (2026). Threshold effect of public education expenditure on literacy rate in Nigeria. UMYUK Journal of Economics and Development, 3(1), 65 –80. https://

[12] Oluwatayo, I. B., Ojo, A. O., Isah, S. I., & Odeleye, A. T. (2024). Determinants of learning outcome in the Nigerian primary schools. The Journal of Negro Education, 204(3), 595-607.

[13] Omodero, C. O. (2022). Public expenditure on education and manpower development in Nigeria. Financial Internet Quarterly, 18(3), 55– 68. https://

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[15] World Bank. (2025). World development report 2025: Improving public expenditure effectiveness in education. World Bank Publications.

How to cite this paper

Dr. C.O.K Ibidapo, O.A. Akinmuyisitan "The Relationship Between Governments’ Budgetary Allocations to Education and Educational Outcomes in Nigeria: An ARDL Approach" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals Volume 10 Issue 2 2026 Page 3087-3096 https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV10I2-1722643
Dr. C.O.K Ibidapo, O.A. Akinmuyisitan "The Relationship Between Governments’ Budgetary Allocations to Education and Educational Outcomes in Nigeria: An ARDL Approach" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals, vol. 10, no. 2, Aug. 2026, doi: https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV10I2-1722643
Dr. C.O.K Ibidapo, O.A. Akinmuyisitan (2026). The Relationship Between Governments’ Budgetary Allocations to Education and Educational Outcomes in Nigeria: An ARDL Approach. Iconic Research And Engineering Journals, 10(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV10I2-1722643
Dr. C.O.K Ibidapo, O.A. Akinmuyisitan "The Relationship Between Governments’ Budgetary Allocations to Education and Educational Outcomes in Nigeria: An ARDL Approach" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals, vol. 10, no. 2, Aug. 2026. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV10I2-1722643
@article{1722643,
      author = {Dr. C.O.K Ibidapo, O.A. Akinmuyisitan},
      title = {The Relationship Between Governments’ Budgetary Allocations to Education and Educational Outcomes in Nigeria: An ARDL Approach},
      journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
      year = {2026},
      volume = {10},
      number = {2},
      pages = {3087-3096},
      issn = {2456-8880},
      url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1722643.pdf},
      abstract = {This study examined the relationship between government budgetary allocation to education and education outcomes in Nigeria from 1990 to 2024. The study employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique to examine both the short-run and long-run relationships among education outcomes, government education expenditure, GDP per capita, population growth and inflation. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller test established that the variables were integrated at mixed orders of I(0) and I(1), providing justification for the ARDL approach. The bounds test produced an F-statistic of 4.778, which exceeded the 5% upper-bound critical value, confirming the existence of a long-run relationship among the variables. The long-run results showed that government education expenditure had a positive but statistically insignificant relationship with education outcomes. In the short run, population growth had a positive and statistically significant effect. The error-correction coefficient was negative and statistically significant at -0.931, indicating rapid adjustment towards long-run equilibrium, with approximately 93.1% of disequilibrium corrected within one year. The study concludes that increasing education expenditure alone may not guarantee improved educational outcomes and recommends greater emphasis on efficient allocation, implementation, monitoring and accountability of education resources.},
      keywords = {government expenditure; education outcomes; education financing; ARDL; nigeria; population growth; education policy.},
      month = {August},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV10I2-1722643}
  }