ABSTRACT

The research empirically analysed the impact government expenditures on economic growth of Nigeria. Specifically, the study centred on the impact of government gross capital formation and government final consumption expenditure on gross domestic product of Nigeria from 1996 to 2016. Therefore, data on government gross capital formation and government final consumption expenditure was generated from statistical bulletin of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) covering the stated time frame. The generated data was analysed using multiple regression analysis and the result provided the findings that; gross capital formation i.e government expenditure on capital projects has a negative and significant impact on economic growth of Nigeria and government final consumption expenditure has a positive and significant effect on the economic growth of Nigeria. based on the findings, the study recommended that; government annual expenditures on capital project such as the provision of infrastructural facilities should be contracted since increase in capital expenditure will not result in rapid and sustained economic growth; and that government recurrent expenditure should be increased to ensure rapid economic growth, since an increase in recurrent expenditure results in rapid increase or improvement in the state of the economy.