Impact of Institutional Quality on Infrastructural Development in Nigeria (1986-2024)

The study examined the impact of institutional quality on infrastructure development in Nigeria. The study used annual time series data covering the period of 1986 to 2024; the data for the variables were checked against the problems of unit root using the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) unit root test, and all the variables were either stable or integrated at I(0) and I(1). Institutional quality was proxied by government effectiveness, rule of law, control of corruption, regulatory quality, and voice and accountability. At the same time, transport network, access to electricity, internet access, and mobile communication were used as proxies for the infrastructural development index. Consequently, the ADF bound test was employed, and it revealed the existence of a long-run relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was adopted for the study, and it was discovered that the institutional quality index had a positive and significant impact on the infrastructural development index in Nigeria in the short and long periods, respectively. The result further shows that gross domestic product per capita, population growth, and inflation rate have a negative and statistically insignificant impact on the infrastructural development index in Nigeria. The overall finding revealed that institutional quality has a positive and significant effect on infrastructural development in Nigeria. The study therefore recommends that policies should prioritize strengthening the effectiveness, transparency, and accountability of key institutions involved in infrastructure planning and implementation. This includes reforming regulatory bodies, improving the management capacity of public agencies, and ensuring the proper enforcement of rules and regulations