Structure, Characteristics, and Determinants of Services Export in Nigeria

The perennial problems of unfavourable commodity terms of trade, early deindustrialisation, and exchange rate volatility are forcing a rethink of development strategies in developing countries. Services are now coming up as a new frontier for trade expansion and economic growth in developing countries. Several empirical studies in structural transformation studies have shown both services value added and exports as growing faster than manufacturing in many developing countries, hence the surge in the literature seeking to determine the important factors driving services export. This study expands the scope of the literature by examining the structure, characteristics, and determinants of Nigeria's services export. The Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin provides data for our descriptive analysis and the World Development Indicators for econometric analysis. The auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimation technique was adopted for econometrics analysis following unit roots and cointegration tests. Residuals and stability tests conducted on the error correction model of the ARDL supports our regression results for valid and reliable inference. Findings show that Nigeria's services export is highly concentrated on the low- technology, low-productivity end of transport and travel services. Services export respond significantly to real income of the rest of the world, the real effective exchange rate, and services value added. Great potentials, however, exists for participation in high-end services like pipeline, maritime, and rail transport since these services are integral to holistic development of the country's huge gas, crude petroleum, and iron ore deposits.