Tourism, Trade and Self-employment Growth in West Africa: Evidence from Ghana, Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire

This study attempts to evaluate the relationship between tourism and trade and self-employment growth in Ghana, Nigeria, and Cote d'Ivoire using a time series of data spanning 1991-2019. In this study, an applied GMM approach was employed. Results show that export and import trade, development assistance, and personal remittance flows significantly spur self-employment during the study period, while indicators of tourism activities represented by the number of tourist arrivals retard the growth of self-employment but increase export trade in these countries. On this basis, the business atmosphere and infrastructural facilities should be improved to sufficiently boost the relationship between trade and tourism and spur self-employment growth in these countries.