Examining the IMF’s role in the history of Nigeria,focusing on the assistance it has provided their economy.
The International Monetary Fund has been known for introducing sound economic policy changes in troubled nations but recently the organization has come under severe attack for its close links with multilateral international agencies. The paper studies IMF’s role in stabilizing Nigeria’s economy and sees how far it succeeded in achieving its objectives. The paper also analyzes the involvement of IMF in Nigeria to assess the effectiveness of IMF-led policies in this country. Argues that the involvement has lead to negative economic consequences.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the international body responsible for monitoring and formulating economic policies in troubled nations. The organization introduces economic reforms in countries, which are suffering from inflation, poverty, corruption, weak economic structure, high external debt etc. Most of the third world countries fall in this category and thus IMF has been involved in various economic programs in countries like Latin America, South Asia, China, Nigeria, and Mexico. But though the organization is known for some constructive work, it has encountered bitter criticism in the last few years because of its close links with the United States and its alleged lack of transparency. It has been noticed that many of its programs are formulated during secret meetings between the IMF officials and government executives. This has done little to improve its ratings and IMF continues to lose credibility among the countries it seeks to support. Many analysts are thus unable to decide if IMF’s supervision is actually as important as it is made out to be. It is true that this organization is trying to provide help to troubled economies but many believe that same could have been done by the private sector. Furthermore, it has been noticed that the economies supported by IMF continue to deteriorate rather than improve. In other words, IMF funding has negative impact on an economy rather than a contributive one. This can be proven by the example of Nigeria, which will be the case in point for this paper.