The term “Globalization” may seem difficult to describe because it has many dimensions – economic, political, cultural and environmental. The focus here is on the economic dimension of globalization. Economic globalization refers to the quickly rising share of economic activity in the world that seems to be taking place between people in different countries. More specifically, and according to the International Monetary Fund, economic globalization is the result of the increasing integration of economies around the world, particularly through trade and financial flows and the movement of people and knowledge across international borders. Corroborating this, the United Nations in this paper, describes economic globalization as the increasing interdependence of world economies as a result of the growing scale of cross-border trade of commodities and services, flow of international capital and wide and rapid spread of technologies.

Nigeria, as a developing country, has been committed to globalization in very elaborate contexts, and one evidence of this is her signing of the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements to engage in trade according to their standards. Nigeria has had her own fair share on the impact of globalization both positively and negatively.

Since globalization entails trade liberalization, it means that there is free and unrestricted movement of trade, finance and investment across the international border. Globalization allows Nigeria to export and import goods, capital and investment without restriction. Through the ICT, globalization allows access to ideas on new things and best practices in all area of human endeavor. New designs, production technology, etc. are made available to people, thereby helping them to change their old practices. These may lead to acquisition or imitation of foreign products, technologies and cultural practices.

Globalization has also encouraged research since through the Internet, one can access websites of different authors, organizations, and companies in different countries of the world.

However, the greatest concern about globalization is the ever-increasing gap between the rich and the poor. The observation in this case is that while global wealth has increased, it has become concentrated in the hands of the few privileged individuals and countries. The distribution of global wealth has never been fair. There is very high inequality because while some countries such as in the Global North (Europe, America, etc.) have benefited from their integration into the global economy, most countries in Africa, more especially Nigeria where income has equally decreased is facing unrest and frustration.

Any adverse global shock in an interdependence world economy affects Nigeria. The propagation mechanism of the oil glut of 1982, 1998 and even 2015 brought decline in the import volume and change in the real price of commodities (oil). Since Nigeria depends heavily on crude oil as the main source of income or foreign exchange earnings, her revenue suffers when there is a global shock.

To conclude, it obviously remains a challenge to every developing country to gear up and develop the capacity to confront the reality of globalization. But if this challenge is defeated and Nigeria is able to develop its own capacity, the nation can participate on its own terms as a subject rather than an object or victim of globalization. Also, in order for Nigeria and other developing economies to benefit from globalization, effort should be made to develop human capital and decode the multimedia super-corridor for relevant information. Essentially, good governance, transparency and accountability are desirable for a strong and competitive economy.

 

Sources:

https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sophia/article/view/81150

https://cnx.org/contents/1ttgPM0x@4.1:Oaeo300h@4/Globalization-opportunities-and-threats-to-developing-country-business

http://www.eajournals.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Effects-of-Globalization-on-Nigerian-Youths-and-the-Economy.pdf

 

This article was written by Lola Olajide

 

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