FOREIGN AID, ASSISTANCE AND GRANTS AS TOOLS FOR THE UNDERDEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA

The widespread belief across the globe and across religions that the rich should help the poor through Aids makes aid beneficiaries to undermine its consequences. Rather than being the cure for the ailment of poverty, Foreign aid is indeed the disease that plagues third world countries and developing nations of the world and which plunges them into more poverty. This is made possible through the conditions attached to the Aids and Grants given to these countries. The benefiting nations feel they are benefitting from a great favour, but the donor nations know what they want. These grants, more often than not, weaken the bargaining power of receiving nations; hence the principle of collective bargaining is, in most cases, violated. Foreign aids are mostly ?Greek gifts?, which benefiting nations take for granted. This paper x-rays the benefits or otherwise of the different aids and grants given to third world countries, especially African countries. The paper concludes that rather than developing the economies of the third world, aid has been and will continue to be a clog in the wheel of progress of developing economies and indeed a monumental humanitarian disaster for most part of the developing world.