The Relationship Between Foreign Debts, Corruption And Infrastructural Development In The Nigerian Economy(1980-2000)

Abstract

The study, which relied on secondary data, investigated the relationship between foreign debts and Nigeria=s infrastructural development and verified the effect of corruption in the debt crisis. The study employed both the quantitative and qualitative methods in analysing the data. This is a major gap the study filled up amidst existing literature as it adopted its own structural and working equation models peculiar to development and incorporates corruption to the study on the relationship between foreign debts and infrastructural development in the Nigerian economy. The study identifies corruption as a major factor which undermines infrastructural development through its negative influence on investment, and its ability to lower the amount and quality of public infrastructure supplied to the nation as a whole. Once corruption is introduced at whatever degree, the efficiency of public expenditure decreases. Corruption is a major underlying factor manifested in the form of bad roads, decaying infrastructures, inadequate medical services, falling educational standards and the disappearance of foreign loans. Corruption distorts the economy through waste, misallocation and misappropriation of resources, thereby contributing to the debt problem in Nigeria. The study showed how the relationships among the variables analysed impact on development namely, that the debt stock and debt servicing further reduces the lean resources available in the country for infrastructural development purposes on the one hand, while corruption diverts resources from education, health, industries, roads etc. to private pockets on the other hand.