ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the main issues of the external indebtedness of West African countries in particular and of Africa in general with a view to identifying the nature and causes of the problem. It explores the structure of the West African/African countries external debt. The chapter is concerned with analyzing the possible causes of these countries' external indebtedness. It also examines the problems of debt management in these countries, and proposes some possible solutions. Many West African countries take loans from the international financial market to develop their economies by increasing their export of goods and services. It is therefore expected that an increasingly favorable ratio of exports to imports should allow a government to pay for such loans and their interest on annual basis. The problem of external indebtedness is not unique to West African countries but is characteristic of all developing nations.
