ABSTRACT
This research work examined the impact of commercial Banks’ credit on Agricultural output in Nigeria using time series data that spans from 1980 to 2016. The broad objective of the study is to investigate the extent to which commercial banks’ credit had supported agricultural output in Nigeria. The specific objectives are: (i) to determine the impact of commercial banks’ credit on agricultural output in Nigeria, and (ii) to determine the impact of agricultural output on economic growth in Nigeria. The methodology adopted for the study was ordinary least square (OLS) involving the student’s T-test, to test the significance of the individual parameter estimate, the F-test, to test the significance of the entire regression plane, the R2 and Adjusted R2, to test the joint influence of the explanatory variables on the dependent variable. Finally, Durbin-Watson’s statistics (DW) was used to check the presence or absence of serial correlation on the data. After the regression, the result shows that agricultural output as well as commercial banks’ credit to agriculture has contributed appreciably, significantly and positively to economic growth in Nigeria. Finally, based on the findings above, the researcher’s core policy recommendations to consolidate the achieved efforts of commercial banks include: Government should formulate policies that will induce setting up of financial institutions especially commercial banks in the rural areas. Also, the monetary authority should give special directives to banks on the increment of loans and advances channeled to the agricultural sector so as to induce greater level of agricultural productivity and output.