Page 18 - CITN 2017 Journal

The findings of this study establish the relationship between the dependent variable
(Economic Development) and the explanatory variables (MREM, FDI, EGS and FX). It is
obvious from the result that all the coefficients of the explanatory variables have the
expected signs except for FDI. This is an indication that Foreign Direct Investments in
Nigeria have had crowding-out effects on the indigenous firms in Nigeria. Many
indigenous firms are out of operation because their inability to compete with their foreign
counterparts. In any case, the signs of the explanatory variables conform to the a priori
expectation in the model of this study. The result shows that a hundred percent increase in
the Migrant Remittances (MREM), holding other regressors (Foreign Direct Investments
(FDI), Remittance from Export of Goods and Services (EGS) and Foreign Exchange (FX))
constant will enhance the economic development of Nigeria by 5 per cent and vice versa.
This is due to the fact that Migrant Remittances are mostly spent on education and
consumption of consumable goods that promote the performance of the manufacturing
sector in the home country. Conversely, a hundred per cent increase in Foreign Direct
Investments in Nigeria will dampen the development of Nigeria by 1.1 per cent provided
other factors are held constant and vice versa.

Foreign Direct Investments slow down development when they crowd-out the indigenous
firms. Because they are often hot money, FDI can “migrate” to other economies at short
notice either to earn higher returns or minimize risk. This sudden relocation can have
adverse impact on the local economy. In the same vein, a hundred percent increase in the
Remittances from Export of Goods and Services will lead to a 2.11 per cent increase in the
economic development of Nigeria, provided other regressors are held constant and vice
versa. Furthermore, a hundred per cent increase in the Foreign Exchange will yield a
234.38 per cent increase in the economic development of Nigeria and vice versa. In a
nutshell, migrant remittances contribute positively to the Nigerian development.

For the t- statistic test, the computed t-value of 4.513021 for migrant remittances to
Nigeria; -6.414015 for Foreign Direct Investments in Nigeria; 11.74572 for Remittance
from Export of goods and services and 2.792428 for Foreign Exchange, are statistically
significant at all levels which is an indication that Migrant Remittances do have positive
2
impact on the economic development of Nigeria. The R which measures the goodness of
fit of the regression equation shows that 98.7 per cent of changes in the dependent variable
(GEH) is caused by the explanatory variables (MREM, FDI, EGS and FX) and the adjusted
2
R of 98.6 per cent shows that there is a fair relationship between the dependent variable
and the independent variables. The remaining 1.3 per cent of variations in the Economic
Development of Nigeria is determined by factors not considered in the model for this
study.
In summary, the result of this study is relevant within the context of Nigerian economy.
Hence, this result is reliable for policy formulation. Also, the output can be used for
forecasting in the short run and in the long run by policy analysts.

1. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The main objective of this study is to determine the macroeconomic impact of migrant
remittances on economic development in Nigeria using social infrastructure (whose
components are education and health) as a proxy for development. The study also set out to
determine the relationship between migrant remittances and economic development as
defined as well as ascertain the proportion of Nigeria's development that can be attributed
to migrant remittances during the review period. To achieve these goals, the study obtained
secondary data for the thirty-six year period spanning 1981 and 2015 on the five variables-
social infrastructure or government expenditure on education and health (GEH) as

11