NIGERIA’S QUEST FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: THE CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS.

Abstract

Nigeria at Independence was largely agrarian in nature, but with the discovery of oil in the country, the economy

became largely dependent on oil and thus became a monocultural economy. Initially, the oil boom of the 1970s to the

early 1980s sustained the economy but over the years, there was decline in the strength of the Nigerian economy as a

result of increased demand arising from population growth and over dependence on the oil sector. The revenue from

the oil sector could no longer sustain the demands of the nation. As a result, successive governments came up with

different programmes to help address this issue and bring about economic growth. The Nigerian economy has not

significantly improved despite the increase in oil prices since 2021; rather, macroeconomic stability weakened as a

result of declining oil production, a costly petrol subsidy that consumed a significant portion of gross oil revenues,

exchange rate distortion, and high inflation. Due to the worsening economic climate, millions of Nigerians live in

poverty. This paper is an attempt to examine various economic development policies that were introduced over time

and to bring out the challenges they faced. Data were sourced from documentary sources such as journal publications,

books, official government publications, online materials and so on. Findings revealed that there were periods of lack

of public investments which resulted in severe infrastructural bottlenecks such as lack of power supply and lack of

good system of transportation network and access roads which hindered private sector activities. Also, the issue of

corruption has been a great challenge that has created a great set back to the Nigerian economy as resources meant

for national development are diverted into private pockets. The study also showed that the difficulty small firms and

start-ups have obtaining funding is a contributing factor to Nigeria's high rate of unemployment and

underemployment. In addition, findings also revealed that the domestic institutions are weak. Another major challenge

to the economic growth of Nigeria is the issue of insecurity, these includes issues of boko haram terrorists, insurgency,

banditry, kidnapping, farmers and herders’ crises and secessionist movement. The study recommends that the

government should address the issue of insecurity, improve spending on infrastructure, targeted innovative financing

schemes should be introduced, the mode in which the domestic institutions are being run should be re-examined and

reforms should be made wherever necessary.