ABSTRACT

The picture of Africa particularly Nigeria, has been characterized by daunting challenges of economic underdevelopment, political instability, unemployment, poverty and diseases in the 21st century. The scenario called for the introduction of an Indigenous African Approach to problems peculiar to Africa, resulting into the formation of NEPAD with its country office in Nigeria. The study therefore sets out to examine the impact as well as the challenges of NEPAD in promoting sustainable development in Nigeria adopting Underdevelopment and Dependency theory (UDT) as its theoretical framework . Qualitative content analysis method was adopted to analyse secondary data collected from publicly acknowledge sources. The findings from the study revealed that NEPAD has made significant impacts on the following in Nigeria: universal basic education, agriculture, health sector, gender equality and women empowerment. Further in the results, it was revealed that NEPAD, through the NEEDS initiative in Nigeria, has helped the country in achieving growth in income and macro-economic stability. Disappointedly, the result provides evidence in support of the fact that NEPAD has failed in reducing the number of the poor and reducing the inequality gap. In term of the challenges, the study revealed that certain factors like corruption (one of the major challenges), reliance on developed countries, and conflict among others are challenges that serve as inhibiting factors towards the attainment of NEPAD objectives in Nigeria. Hence, it was recommended among others that political leaders in Nigeria should inculcate the habit of good governance and accountability in government, be more creative and innovative in revenue generation rather than being dependent on the developed world. Above all, Nigerian leaders should show more commitment and demonstrate strong political will towards the course of NEPAD.