This paper carries out an empirical examination of the interplay between
savings and human capital development in Nigeria (natural resource
rich-country) for the years 1981-2022. The relationships of interest were
estimated by employing several methods. Using Ordinary Least
Squares, the results show that by types of natural resources, oil rent contributes more to savings in Nigeria but the joint (total) natural resources
rents impact on savings was found to be statistically insignificant in both
short and long run using auto-regression distributed lag (ARDL).
Nonetheless, gross savings lagged (one year period) affects savings in
Nigeria negatively. Invariably, the savings must have come from non-oil
sectors with less revenue. The ARDL short-run dynamic analysis of the
impact of savings on human capital development in Nigeria reveals that
gross saving two lag period (two-year period) has impacted positively on
human capital development, although its value is <1, i.e., savings in
Nigeria has grossly underperformed relative to her enormous resource
endowment.