Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development

A careful glimpse of underdevelopment status in Nigeria reveals myriads of challenges such as economic backwardness, political instability, corruption, unemployment declining Agricultural fortunes, decaying infrastructures, poor manufacturing and exporting capacity, terrorism, insurgency, inequality and poverty. In the past, most scholars suggested various theories suitable for the development of African economy and Nigeria in particular, but those theories seems to provide more problems than solution. On this backdrop, this study entitled “Towards Addressing Nigeria’s Development Crises: The Role of Social Capital Theory” was conducted to unwrap the benefits of Social Capital Theory in Nigeria. By means of content analysis, this study employs secondary source of information to examine the issues in discourse. Findings revealed that the development of two or more individuals leads to the development of a group; and whenever a group collectively develops, then the community is developing; as more and more groups develop, the entire nation is said to be developing. It is therefore recommended that Policy makers must make policies that will promote social inclusion; provides equal educational opportunities, provide social capital credits and generate employment opportunities for all social classes with special focus on the poor.

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