Human Capital Development and Economic Growth in West Africa

The study focused on Human Capital Development (HCD) and Economic Growth in West Africa .This research seeks to examine the impact of Human Capital Development (HCD) on economic growth in the West African sub region. In carrying out the empirical research, data were collected on human capital development and growth indices from countries in the sub region and panel data analysis was conducted to ascertain the acceptance or otherwise of the hypotheses developed in the study. The human capital development indices used were the time lag of primary school, secondary school and tertiary school enrolments. Other human capital development indicators include government expenditure on education (EXE), government expenditure on health care services (EXH), and life expectancy at birth (LER). Other independent variables include gross capital formation (GCF), population growth rate (PGR) and information and communication technology (ICT). The research covered all the fifteen countries in WestAfrica, which include the Francophone and the Anglophone countries. The period of analysis covered was between 1995 to 2014.