Entente Commerciale: The Soviet Union and West Africa

The Afro-Soviet entente is as much an economic as a political relationship. Although not yet substantial, commercial ties between the two continents are significant both because they are, in theory, mutually beneficial and because they provide scope for development from a few loose strands to a complex network of economic relations. Ghana was one of the first African countries to attempt to improve its economic links with the USSR and therefore illustrates better than most, the possibilities and pitfalls entailed in such an attempt. Its close neighbour Nigeria, was much more reserved in its dealings with the Soviet bloc and provides a valuable contrast which illustrates the gains and losses accruing to Ghana by virtue of its intimate contact with Russia. The potential of the USSR and the other centrally planned economies to provide a new market for the exports of less developed countries and to become an additional source of development assistance, is of particular interest at the present time when the Third World is groping towards a new international economic order.