External Debt: A Tool For, or a Threat to the Economic Growth of Nigeria

Economic growth is a paramount desire of any nation. Nigeria, as a developing country and the giant of Africa has a number of challenges facing her economic growth. This paper seeks to empirically find the effects of external public debt on the economic growth of Nigeria. The researchers collected secondary data from CBN Annual Reports and Statistical Bulletin. The multiple regression analysis was used to find the relationship between Nigeria external debt and Nigeria Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The result shows that there is a minimal positive relationship between external debt stock and GDP. The coefficient of determination (R2), which stood at 99 % also shows that the model has a good fit. The conclusion and summary of this paper reflects that external debt will positively affect economic growth increasingly in the near future, if public debts are managed in such a manner that they are invested in self liquidating developmental projects. Termites such as, embezzlement, mismanagement and corruption must not be in the system to achieve the desired economic goals.