The Debt Trap in Nigeria: Towards a Sustainable Debt Strategy

by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Editor)

This is one of the first major studies to put the debt question in Nigeria into perspective. It is the outcome of a historic conference held in Abuja in May 2001 to discuss Nigeria’s future within the context of the country’s considerable debt burden. Convened by the National Debt Management Office in collaboration with the African Institute for Applied Economics, Enugu, and the UK Department for International Development, the conference was attended by many local and international participants from the public and private sector. Capturing salient points of various presentations at the conference, this book highlights the consensus reached along the way and the recommendations proffered for reducing the debt burden, strengthening the institutional framework for debt and resource management, and resuming sustainable development. The call is to all involved, Nigerians in general and the international community in particular, to work more proactively in helping the country escape the debt trap by refocusing its resources on fighting poverty and achieving the internationally agreed millennium development goals.

280 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2003

About the author

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was Nigeria's Minister of Finance from 2003 to 2006 and from 2011 to 2015, and Foreign Minister in 2006. She was Managing Director of the World Bank from 2007 to 2011, overseeing South Asia, Europe, Central Asia, and Africa, and is currently Senior Adviser at Lazard and Board Chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. She is the author of Reforming the Unreformable: Lessons from Nigeria (MIT Press).