Environmental degradation on poverty reduction in Nigeria

Nigeria's economy is the largest in Africa and relies heavily on oil exports. However, the excessive exploitation of oil has also brought many environmental problems. Likewise, poverty has become a menace over the years in Nigeria. How to deal with the relationship between poverty reduction and the environment is a realistic challenge to sustainable development. This study examines the nexus between poverty reduction and environmental degradation in Nigeria through the use of the autoregressive distributed lag technique, using data from 1986 to 2020. The cointegration test confirmed a long-run relationship among the variables. The regression results indicate a trade-off between environmental degradation and poverty reduction in the long-run and short-run. This is a situation where higher environmental degradation is necessary for poverty reduction, while an increase in poverty reduction increases environmental degradation. This study recommends that policymakers in Nigeria need to encourage investment in technology-intensive and environment-friendly industries which will enhance environmental quality without increasing poverty.