CONTROL AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN NIGRIA (2015 – 2020)

Debt control in Nigeria has been very poor. As many African countries especially Nigeria have been victim of poor debt management. With the harsh and sometimes repulsive conditions given by International financial institutions like IMF, debt management has met a waterloo in Nigeria. In the course of exploring how poor foreign debt management has effected economic development in Nigeria, I relied on the specifics of the following research questions: (1) Does the conditionality’s of foreign debt rescheduling account for high unemployment rate in Nigeria? (2) Do the conditions of foreign debt relief undermine infrastructural development in Nigeria? To empirically examine these research questions, the study was anchored on the Dependency theory and employing the documentary method collection and content analysis for data generation, the study discovered that the conditions required for foreign debt rescheduling in Nigeria has brought about high unemployment rate and caused low standard of living. As a result of the harsh conditions required to get debt relief, infrastructural development in Nigeria has reached very low ebb. Amongst the plethora of recommendations, the study surmise therefore that The Federal Government should ensure that all the economic development plans mapped out to resuscitate economic condition is being practiced. Also, the rate at which the federal government is pursuing foreign loans is alarming and if it’s not reduced, Nigeria’s economy is already on the path to disaster. Nigeria’s over reliance on dividends from oil production is also a major hitch to economic development, as such other sectors of the economy should be develop to maximize profit and improve revenue. Keywords: Debt control, Infrastructural development, Unemployment rate, Conditionality’s