THE MODERATING ROLE OF DIGITALIZATION ON ENTERPRENEURSHIP, ENTERPRENEURSHIP FINANCING AND ECONOMIC GROWTH NEXUS IN NIGERIA

The study examined the moderating role of digitalization on entrepreneurship growth nexus in Nigeria covering the period 1990-2021. The study majorly aimed at investigating the interaction impact of digitalization and entrepreneurship on growth, and the interaction impact of digitalization and entrepreneurship financing on economic growth in Nigeria. Employing the restricted Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model in analyzing the data, the result of the study revealed that digitalization interacts with entrepreneurship to have a significant positive impact on economic growth in Nigeria. The study also found that entrepreneurship has a positive impact on economic growth while entrepreneurship financing negatively impact on economic growth in Nigeria. Furthermore, the study revealed that the interaction between digitalization and entrepreneurship financing has not impacted significantly on the growth of the Nigerian economy. This explains the importance of direct financial assistance to the entrepreneurs which target the small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) in order to enhance their financial status which improve their production. Also, government should invest more in research and development, to boost innovations and digital technology in the economy.