ABSTRACT

The main goal of the government in Nigeria since independence has been to accelerate the country's economic development with increased capital accumulation and investment. This is in line with transforming the country from penury to opulence, from foreign dependence to self-reliance and eventually from underdeveloped nation to a developed One. Economic development, therefore must be financed either from accumulated pool of funds/capital or new procurements. This study therefore set out to find out the role of non-bank financial institutions in economic development in Nigeria and to ascertain to what extent these roles have been achieved. It is also to review the various activities of these institutions and the impact of their operations on the economy. In this study, the population of interest using NICON PLC as a case study, the simple regression analysis and the coefficient of determination were used to test the postulated hypothesis. Based on the analysis and appraisal conducted, the following findings were made: the non-bank financial institutions arc deeply involved in saving mobilization in Nigeria i.e., they have contributed to the overall productive economic activities through the savings they mobilize. NBFls have made fund available for investment activities in Nigeria by releasing the mobilized loans and advances to the productive and service sectors of the economy. Their activities have provided for conducive atmosphere for investment by mobilizing funds and savings from the surplus spending units (savers) and channeling them to (lie deficit spending units (investors). The sector is laced with a lot of problems which most often impedes on its ability to use the available resources to achieve economic developments. Such problems include: poor infrastructure facilitation in the country, poor capital base of the institution.