A Comparative Analysis of the Impact of Agricultural Exports on Economic Growth of ECOWAS Countries

Abstract

Towards the acceleration of the attainment of sustainable growth, most countries have focusedon agricultural exports as a means of driving their economy. Developing countries of Africa arehighly dependent on the agricultural sector and agricultural exports are a major determinant ofeconomic growth of these countries. However, the impact of agricultural exports on economicgrowth of ECOWAS countries remains unclear. This study therefore evaluates the impact ofagricultural exports on the economic growth of fifteen ECOWAS countries using panel data for theperiod 1980–2013. Variables employed are labour force participation rate, capital stock, agriculturalexports, non-agricultural exports, inflation and economic growth. The results of the fixed-effectmodel show that agricultural exports have not impacted significantly on the economic growth ofECOWAS countries such as Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria with respect to the Republic of Benin, whichis the selected baseline. The study also analysed the country combined effect of the agriculturalexports and found that it was significant but the rate of impact was weak. The study recommends,among others, that even though agricultural exports had a significant impact on economic growth,there is still a need for ECOWAS governments to improve their agricultural sector as its significanceis more noticeable in some countries such as Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria.