Problems and Prospect of Development Planning in Contemporary African Societies Nigeria in Perspective

Abstract

All societies of the world have experienced development at one time or the other. Development planning is an effective vision whereby a country which tend to be backward in economic development, desire to put up strategies within the shortest period of time to meet the desires needs and expectation of its society. The strategies, policies and programmes are formulated by the technocrats and development planners. Consequently, this paper seeks to look at conceptual definition of terms, the purpose of planning and pre-requisite for planning. It will discuss the various Nigeria development plans. Also, the paper reveals problems and prospects of development plans in Nigeria. The research adopts an explanatory approach for analysis. The paper recommended that the way forward is to build out poor institutional framework in area of policy formulation, programme and institutional lapses of the past as a basis for laying an enduring foundation for the economy, especially in areas which are of future short, medium, and long-term policy and programme directions.