The impact of FDI on Nigeria’s export performance : a sectoral analysis

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the foreign direct investment (FDI)–exports relationship in Nigeria using disaggregated FDI and export data. Design/methodology/approach: This paper applies the autoregressive distributed lag cointegration approach in examining the long-run relationship between FDI and exports. Findings: The results suggest that aggregate FDI has a positive and statistically significant long-run impact on total exports. Once exports are disaggregated into oil and non-oil exports, the positive, cointegrating relationship holds only for oil exports. When disaggregated by sector, primary sector and manufacturing sector FDI have a positive and significant long-run relationship with both total exports and oil exports but service sector FDI does not appear to have any significant influence on Nigerian exports. Originality/value: This is the first paper that employs both sectoral FDI and disaggregated export data to examine the FDI–exports nexus in Nigeria.