Empirical Evidence of Fisheries Sub-Sector’s Contribution to the igerian Economy

The study examined relationship between the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria with the inputs of labour, capital and the output of fisheries. This is to ascertain that the fisheries contribution to the economy is more than is recorded in the sense that taking its indirect and direct economic impact into account, its overall contribution to the GDP of Nigeria may be higher than that measured by the national accounts. The Co-integration test was carried out; the trace statistic test reveals that at 5% level of significance, that at most 2 equations are co-integrated, since their absolute values are greater than the critical values at 5% level of significant. The Max-Eigen values also reveals that at 5% level of significance, that at most 2 equations are co-integrated, since their absolute values are greater than their critical values (i.e. 89.23411 > 31.46 and 46.65230 > 25.54). This corroborated the trace statistics, therefore, it is concluded that there is a long run equilibrium relationship between the 4 identified variables (GDP, F, K, L) in the model. The results established the fact that the fisheries sub-sector of Nigerian economy could be regarded as economic base of the country, especially in the coastal part of the country in which the life of people depend on fish based live hood strategies.