Investment plays a very important and positive role for progress and prosperity of any country. Many countries rely on investment to solve their economic problem such as poverty, unemployment etc (Muhammad and Mohammed 2004).
Interest rate on the other hand is the price paid for the use of money. It is the opportunity cost of borrowing money from a lender to finance investment project. It can also be seen as the return being paid to the provider of financial resources, for using the fund for future consumption (Sleka, 2004). Interest rates are normally expressed as a percentage rate. The volatile nature of interest is determined by many factors, which include taxes, risk of investment, inflationary expectations, liquidity preference, market imperfections in an economy etc.
Banks are given the primary responsibility of financial intermediation in order to make fund available for economic agents. Banks as financial intermediaries move fund from surplus sector/units of the economy to deficit sector/units by accepting deposits and channeling them into lending activities (Afolabi, 2003). The extent to which this could be done depend upon the rate of interest and level of development of financial sector as well as the saving habit of the people in the country.
Hence, the availability of investible funds is therefore regarded as a necessary starting part for all investment in the economy which will eventually translate to economic growth and development (Uremadu, 2006).
Download Chapter One
Read full post »