ABSTRACT

The main thrust of this study is to investigate effect of government expenditure on economic development in Nigeria using Nigeria as a reference point. Ex-post factor research design was adopted for the study. Data for this work was sourced using secondary sources, Time series data were generated from the Central Bank of Nigeria('c'BI\Q statistical bulletin and Public Finance edition 2 from 1980-2018. The hypotheses formulated and tested revealed  that an increase in the government expenditure will decrease Unemployment rate, an increase in the spending i'iIl lead to decrease in poverty level, and an increase in the Capital Market performance will lead to increase in standard of living. The study also revealed that government spending has significant effect on unemployment rate in Nigeria, as while as significant effect of on poverty level in Nigeria. The study recommends that government should enact on enabling law that will ensure the workability of its budgets according to plans and increase the proportion of capital expenditure to recurrent expenditure so that the budget can have growth and development inducement among others.