Foreign Debt Management and Nigeria’s Debt Profile 1999-2007 A Critical Analysis

ABSTRACT This work examines the Nigeria’s foreign debt profile, in relation to the debt management plans adopted to manage Nigeria’s increasing debt stock. The theory of dependency is used as a framework of analysis .This views the foreign debt problem as arising from the peripheral nature in the world capitalist economy which Nigeria belongs, including the structures of the international capitalist economy, that ensures the periphery depend on the core for everything including finance, technology et cetera. Data were gathered through qualitative method of data collection from secondary sources like books, journals, government publications and so on. To ensure that data from the secondary sources were given qualitative interpretation and analysis, we applied qualitative descriptive method of data analysis. Through the historical research design we were able to observe and carefully analyzed the Nigeria’s debt management strategies and relate it to the present and future nature of Nigeria’s foreign debt. We find out that Nigeria debt looked sustainable in relation to the GDP, since Nigeria exited from the Paris club debt which returned the country’s debt to sustainable levels. We equally submit that some of the management strategies Nigeria adopted reduced the country’s total debt stock. Finally, we draw our recommendations based on the findings of our research work, which was vividly summarized in our conclusion.