Nigeria’s Engagement with Bretton Woods Institutions and Its Implications for Sub-Saharan Africa’s Development

Abstract

Bretton Woods institutions, according to liberal scholars, have been described as a necessary and unbiased framework that can ameliorate the developmental crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. However, stringent conditionalities imposed by these twin institutions (International Monetary Fund and World Bank) of economic globalization have become the major means they have perpetuated the dominance of the poorer countries in sub-Saharan Africa by the richer countries in the Western hemisphere, thereby worsening the developmental crisis in the region. Using the structural theory of imperialism with data generated from primary and secondary sources, the article investigates the role and impact of the stringent conditionalities imposed by the Bretton Woods institutions on the developmental crisis in sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria as a case analysis. The main argument of the article is that the Bretton Woods institutions, despite their reforms through initiatives such as Output-Based Aid and the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, have continued as an imperialistic tool for perpetuating developmental crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. The article concluded that the policies of these institutions, despite their face value, target economic growth and development, have worsened economic underdevelopment in the region.