Bretton Woods Institutions and Persistent Developmental Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): The Nigerian Example

Abstract

Previous studies from the Liberal political economy perspectives have
described the Breton wood institutions as a necessary and unbiased framework
for ensuring global economic growth. This has been debunked by scholars
from the Marxist political economy perspective who have argued that the
institutions are basically framework of imperialism to perpetually ensure
dominance of weaker states by stronger capitalist states. Specifically, stringent
conditionalities imposed by these twin institutions (International Monetary
Fund and World Bank) of economic globalization is the major means by
which Bretton Woods institutions have perpetuated the dominance of the
poorer countries in sub-Saharan Africa by the richer countries in the Western
hemisphere, thereby worsening developmental crisis in the region. Using the
structural theory of Imperialism with data generated from primary and
secondary sources, the article investigates the impact of the stringent
conditionalities imposed by the Bretton Woods institutions on developmental
crisis in sub-Saharan Africa with Nigeria as a case analysis. The main
argument of the paper is that the Bretton Woods institutions in spite of their
reforms through initiatives such as Output-Based Aid (OBA) and the Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC-Initiative) have continued as an
imperialistic tool for perpetuating developmental crisis in sub-Saharan Africa.
The paper concluded that the policies of these institutions despite its face
value target at economic growth and development have worsened economic
underdevelopment in the region.