International Trade, Corruption and Economic Growth: Evidence from Selected Sub-Saharan Countries

Sustainable development goal 17 emphasizes the importance of international trade in achieving inclusive growth. Likewise, countries with high level of corruption will experience limited growth. In order to examine the causality, this study considers the impact of international trade and corruption on the economic growth of selected sub-Saharan African countries (Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa) from the period 2000-2019. The granger causality test and fixed effect method of estimation were adopted. The result of the granger causality tests shows that there is no causality between import and economic growth, there is unidirectional causality between export and economic growth and there is no causality between control of corruption and economic growth. Furthermore, it was discovered that export, import, and control of corruption have a positive impact, 25.4%, 32%, 45.5% respectively, on the economic growth of selected sub-Saharan African countries. Hence from these findings, policies towards export promotion should be encouraged as export is crucial for the economic growth of these countries and policies to curb corruption should be implemented in order to promote economic growth in the selected sub-Saharan African countries.