This study explores the significant relationship between the performance of the manufacturing sector and economic growth in Nigeria, utilizing annual time series data from 1985 to 2023 obtained from various sources, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), and the World Development Indicators (WDI). The Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test revealed that only the labor productivity and domestic capital formation are stationary at level, while manufacturing sector output, economic growth, and interest rate are stationary at first difference. The bound test for co-integration suggests that the model is indeed co-integrated. The results from the Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model indicate that manufacturing sector output has a significant impact on long-term economic growth but does not have a significant effect in the short term. Conversely, the labor productivity has a significant contribution to economic growth in both the long and short run. Domestic capital formation, however, shows an insignificant impact on Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP) in both the short and long term. The findings highlight the need for policy interventions that address key issues such as ensuring a stable and reliable interest rate for manufacturing sector in Nigeria. Furthermore, there is a need to establish adequate incentive for worker as labor force productivity plays a crucial role in driving economic growth. Finally, encouraging savings is essential for improving domestic capital formation and fostering increased investment in the economy.

Keywords: Manufacturing sector, economic growth, labor productivity