Аннотация:This study examined the effect of bank financial intermediation on the performance of agricultural sector in Nigeria between 1992 and 2017.Time series data were collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin.Agricultural sector output (AGOUT) was proxied as the endogenous variable to measure the performance of agricultural sector, and regressed on Commercial Bank Credits to Agricultural sector (CBCA), Commercial banks' Gross Saving deposits (CGSD), Microfinance Bank Credits to Agricultural sector (MBCA), Microfinance banks' Gross Saving Deposits (MGSD) and Deposit Interest Rate (DIR) as the proxies of bank financial intermediation.Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Model was employed for data analysis.The results showed that the previous year deviation from long-run equilibrium was corrected in the current period at an adjustment speed of 22%.The result also showed that in the long run, most of the bank financial intermediation variables were positively and insignificantly stimulating agricultural performance in Nigeria.Based on these findings, it was concluded that bank financial intermediation was positive but insignificant determinant of agricultural performance in Nigeria in the long run.It was therefore, recommended that government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should moderately increase the deposit interest rate to encourage savings while special directive should be given to banks to give priority to lending request from agricultural sector.
