Foreign Aid and African Development: Lessons from Nigeria

Abstract

The interdependence of developing countries necessitates the granting of aid to needy countries. However, analysts have diverse opinions about factors responsible for the underdevelopment of Africa. Many assumed that the underdevelopment and dependency situation of most African countries on foreign aid are due to poor leadership, mismanagement of national resources and elevation of personal aggrandizement and primordial interest over and above national interest. The neo-Marxist scholars, on the other hand, submitted and insisted that what propelled the development of developed countries are also the same factors that facilitated the underdevelopment of developing countries. These factors are: colonialism, slave trade, and unequal exchange. This paper adopts dependency theory in analyzing the implication of foreign aid on the economies of developing world.