An Empirical Study of Agricultural Financing and Its Implication on Rural Poverty Alleviation in Nigeria

Abstract

The study analyzed the implication of agricultural financing on rural poverty alleviation in Nigeria. The agricultural financing indicators considered as independent variables include government expenditure to agriculture sector, commercial bank credit to agriculture sector, agriculture sector guarantee scheme fund loan to agriculture sector, lending rate loan to agriculture sector. The independent variable for economic growth is considered as real gross domestic product. The data was sourced from central bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin and it was analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The result revealed that government expenditure to agricultural sector has positive and insignificance effect on gross domestic product in Nigeria, commercial bank credit to agricultural sector has positive and significance impact on gross domestic product in Nigeria, Agricultural sector guarantee scheme fund loan to agricultural sector has positive and significance impact on gross domestic product in Nigeria. It was recommended that government at all level should increase their allocation to the agriculture sector of the economy to enhance the performance of the sectors.