Blue Economy and Sustainable Development in Sub-Sahara Africa: Evidence from Nigeria

Abstract

Globally, the blue economy is seen as a potential new frontier for development, especially for coastal states like Nigeria. The sustainability and the use of ocean, sea, and coastal resources for economic growth, improved livelihood, and job creation while preserving the health of marine ecosystems are the basic tenets of the blue economy programmes that must be vigorously pursued. Therefore, this study seeks to examine the impact of the blue economy on sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa with evidence from Nigeria, using secondary annual time series data from 1981 to 2024 on the underlisted variables from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin and data from World Development Indicators (WDI). The dependent variable, sustainable development, was proxied by the human development index, while the number of revenue from fishing (REV), investment in marine energy resources (INVMA), life expectancy (LEXP), governance/institutional quality (INSTQ), inflation rate (INFL), interest rate accruable to blue economy resources (INTR) and per capita GDP (GDPPC) were the independent and control variables, respectively. The test mechanisms adopted were the unit root test for co-integration and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique. Findings revealed that there exists a positive and significant relationship between per capita GDP, revenue from fishing, investment in marine energy resources, trade openness and interest rate accruable to the blue economy in both long and short run periods, suggesting that these variables contribute immensely to sustainable development in Nigeria when properly harnessed. However, governance/institutional quality and inflation rate exhibited a shocking negative and insignificant relationship with sustainable development in both periods, showing that during the period under review, the underlisted variables had a devastating impact on sustainable development in Nigeria. Therefore, for policy, the study recommended that the government should put in place policies and programmes that will reform governance, diversify marine resource use, stabilise inflation and prioritise human well-being so that these variables can positively drive sustainable development.