EFFECT OF OIL PRICE FLUCTUATION AND UNEMPLOYMENT ON ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT This study examinedThe Effect of Oil Price Fluctuation, Unemployment on Economic Growth in Nigeria from 1980-2023 Data employed for this study was elicited from World Bank Data Base-World Developmental Indicators of 2022 and Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin of 2022. This study employed economic growth (GDP) which is the dependent variable where Oil Price (OILP), Interest Rate (INT), Exchange rate (EXR) and Unemployment (UNE)are independent variables. This study employed Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Model to analyze data; other diagnostic tests such as: stability test, Auto correlation test, Heteroskedasticity test and BreuschGodfrey Serial Correlation LM test were also carried out and they confirmed the validity and reliability of the model employedThe study concluded that the oil price and exchange rate give performance to the growth of domestic economy in Nigeria showed evidence of long-run equilibrium relationship among the variables of study. It also concluded that some of the variables have positive contribution to the growth of domestic economy except that of interest rate and unemployment which have negative contribution to the growth of an economy over the study period.Based on our findings, the paper recommended that Government should utilize the proceeds from crude oil to stimulate the macroeconomy during periods of global hike in crude oil price to continue to reduce the rate of unemployment in Nigeria. Labour intensive and production in other sectors should be encouraged because; production is more skewed to the oil sector. Better still employment should be created in other sectors of the economy and youth unemployment should also be tackled; these will address the issue of robbery, kidnapping and other social vices presently in the country. KEYWORDS:Economic Growth, Oil Price Fluctuation, Unemploymentand Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Model.