Drivers of Stock Market Development in Nigeria: Does Openness Matter?

The stock market represents a major source of long-term funds. However, the Nigerian stock market lacks depth due to the weak regulatory system and legal framework. Extant studies have shown that both institutional quality and openness are enablers of the stock market. An analysis of the effects of institutional quality and openness on the development of the Nigerian stock market from 1996 to 2021 is therefore crucial. The Auto Regressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) method is used to analyze data from World Bank databases and the Lane-Milesi Ferreti index, with results showing that institutional quality has a positive and significant impact on stock market development in Nigeria. Meanwhile, development of the stock market, institutional quality, and openness are related over the long term based on the ARDL bounds test. A further finding revealed that the development of Nigeria’s banking sector and the exchange rate had positive (negative) effects on the development of the stock market, respectively. Additionally, stock market liquidity contributed to development of the market. This study came to the conclusion that an enabling stock market in Nigeria could be strengthened by the interaction of institutional quality and openness. The study concludes that strengthening Nigeria’s governance institutions through the creation of an appropriate legal framework is necessary to ensure political stability and the absence of violence in the country’s political system. Besides, the government really needs to grant autonomy to agencies in charge of tackling corruption to enable them to enjoy simultaneous openness. Monetary authorities should also ensure exchange rate stability and improved credit for domestic investment activities.