Abstract:
Study investigated the relationship between external debt and economic development in Nigeria within the period of 1999-2013. The major target of the research was to provide a framework that explains the effect of external debt on economic development and why African as a continent has remained underdeveloped despite all the huge amount of money borrowed externally. The theory of dependency theory was adopted as the analytical framework to demonstrate that Nigeria has followed a developmental strategy dictated by the interest of the imperialist or monopoly capitalist and their local allies among the indigenous population. And how these people have succeeded in impoverishing Africa.Our method of data collection and analysis are qualitative and quantitative-descriptive methods respectively. The findings of the study revealed that there’s no relationship between external debt and development in Nigeria. The study recommends that the international economy should be restructured and unequal terms of trade balance with unfair economic trade relations should be discouraged, so as to encourage foreign exchange for national development.
