EDUCATION & HEALTH EXPENDITURES IN NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Abstract

NTRODUCTION
Economic growth is attained through the productive use of all resources, including labour, this result in greater per capita income and improvement in people’s average standard of living (World bank, 2004). It has also been argued that meaningful human development depends on policy choices including access to income and employment opportunities, educational and healthcare services as well 
as clean and safe physical environment. Human capital theory suggests that society and individuals derive economic benefits from investments in people (Oluwatobi and Ogunrinola, 2011). Education and health play a central role in economic development (Dauda, 2004). They play a central role in development process. No country has successfully achieved continuous growth without significant 
investment in human capital (Adelowokan, 2012). The effect of government expenditure spending on human capital development is still an unsolved issue both empirically and theoretically. Quite recently the wealth of a nation is now being measured in terms of human capital and not the stock of physical capital only, as an independent factor of production required to accomplish high and sustainable 
labour productivity.

Economic development theorists, especially the neo-classicalist are of the opinion the development in human resources generally has a significant impact on economic growth and development. They opined that the quality and quantity of labour determine production (Okoro 2015). Welfare, being an important indicator for growth and development as given by the Human Development Index (HDI) has identified education and health as one of its measures. Education, good health and longevity are also fundamental inputs for productivity assistance affordable for all the population of countries. Stagnation has been noticed in many developing countries both in health and 
education expenditure per capita and economic development, Doucouliagos (1997) has noted human capital as a source to motivate workers, boost up their commitment and create expenditure in research and development (R&D) and eventually pave way for the generation of new knowledge for the economy and society at large.