Digital Payments, mobile banking, insurance penetration and inclusive economic development: Evidence from Nigeria

The study examines the relationship between digital payment transaction value‚ mobile banking penetration and insurance penetration and inclusive economic growth in Nigeria between 2009 and 2024 using per capita income as the proxy variable․ The study adopted an ex-post facto research design‚ using annual secondary data sourced from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators and the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin as the data collection instrument․ Using descriptive statistics‚ correlation analysis‚ augmented Dickey-Fuller unit-root test and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag bounds-testing approach‚ short run and long run estimates have been developed and the bounds test shows a long run relationship among the variables․ The study finds that‚ in the short run‚ digital payment transaction value and mobile banking penetration have positive and insignificant effects․ In addition‚ insurance penetration has an important negative effect․ The study also finds that in the long run‚ mobile banking penetration has a positive and meaningful effect‚ while the value of digital payment transaction and insurance penetration have meaningful negative effects․ These include expanding access to mobile banking‚ shifting digital payments towards productive uses‚ and reforming the insurance market to stimulate more inclusive economic growth․

Keywords: Digital payments; mobile banking; financial inclusion; inclusive economic development; per capita income; insurance penetration, Nigeria.