Funding Higher Education in the Face of Rising Inflation and Emerging Trends in the 21st Century, Nigeria

Before 1986, African government invested heavily in education and studies shows that in Nigeria and other countries in Africa, this was the period of the most rapid expansion of education.The economic crisis of the 1980s which is still persisting up to this present 21st century, led to the introduction of structural adjustment programmes (SAP) with prescription from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank for reduction in public investment in education.In reality, these policies led to decrease in public expenditure on education, increased participation of the private sector, commercialization of education and stagnation of salary of lecturers in the face of rising inflation leading to a decline in the quality of education.One other way that has led to declining quality of education in this 21st century is the neglect of tertiary institutions in Nigeria especially as from the time President Bola Alhmade Tinnubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy in May 2023 after his swearing in as the Nigeria president.This paper assessed comparatively Nigeria's budgetary allocation to education sector from 2015-2024 when APC party took over the governance of this country Nigeria.Against this background, the paper finds out that the allocated funds to higher education in particular and entire education sector in general were not fully implemented by relevant agencies.For this to be critical, the paper recommended among others that, the country should implement at least the 26 percent target in its yearly budgets, more funds should be allocated for capital projects, and there is need for recommitment and fiscal discipline in the formulation and implementation of budgets so as to revitalize facilities in higher education sector in the face of this rising inflation.