Abstract
This study investigated the impact of financial development on renewable energy consumption in
Nigeria over the period 1990 to 2025 using Domestic Credit to Private Sector, Broad Money
Supply, Stock Market Capitalization and Bank Deposit as a proxy for financial development while
renewable energy consumption serves as the dependent variable. Data were obtained from the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin and World Bank World Development Indicators
(WDI), 2025 and were analyzed using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test, and
Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ARDL). The results indicate the existence of a long-run
relationship between financial development and renewable energy consumption according to the
bound test. Further findings revealed that domestic credit to private sector and stock market
capitalization has a significant positive impact on renewable energy consumption. However,
broad money supply had a negative but significant impact on renewable energy consumption while
bank deposit reported a positive but insignificant relationship with renewable energy consumption
in Nigeria. Hence, it was concluded that financial development had a considerable impact on
renewable energy consumption in Nigeria. It was recommended amongst others that the Central
Bank of Nigeria should collaborate with the Bank of Industry to expand concessional lending and
credit guarantee schemes specifically tailored to renewable energy projects, particularly for small
and medium-scale enterprises engaged in solar and off-grid solutions.