Bank Credit and Aggregate Import Demand in Nigeria: A Cointegration Analysis

This study reformulated the aggregate import demand for Nigeria by including a financial variable (bank credit) into the traditional import demand function for the period 1970-2009. The Johansen Multivariate cointegration analysis was used to estimate the function. The result obtained from the study shows no evidence of the existence of cointegrating relations between bank credit and import demand. This shows that bank credit is found to be insufficient as a policy instrument for long term import demand in Nigeria. Thus, the financial variable should not be included in modelling the aggregate import demand for Nigeria.