ABSTRACT

The prime objective 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 foreign dependence to self reliance and eventually from an underdeveloped nation to a developed one. Economic development therefore must be financed either from accumulated pool of funds/capital or new procurements. This study is therefore out to discover the role of the non bank financial institutions in the economic development of Nigeria and to ascertain to what extent these roles have been achieved using (Insurance companies) as a case study. it is also to review the various activities of these institutions and the impact of its operations on the economy and thereby devising effective strategies to enhance the performance of these institutions. In this study the population of interest is the non-bank financial institution (Insurance companies) as a case study. Secondly data generated from Insurance companies and some other non-bank financial institutions for the period (1990-2004) were used. The simple regression analysis and the coefficient of determination were equally used to test the postulated hypothesis. From the study, the researcher finds that the non bank financial institutions (Insurance companies) have played a very important role in the economic development of Nigeria which include among the following: 1. The efficient mobilization of investment for the growth of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP). 2. The mobilization of sufficient savings from surplus unit for productive economic activities which encourages GDP growth. 3. Manpower development by way of employment generation etc.