Tax Revenue and Access to Quality Education in Nigeria: Implications for Sustainable Development

This study examines the impact of tax revenue on access to quality education in Nigeria within the context of persistent underfunding of the education sector and the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 4. An ex-post facto research design was adopted using annual time-series data obtained from the Nigeria Revenue Service, Central Bank of Nigeria, and the World Bank. The Auto Regressive Distributed Lag technique was employed to analyze both short-run and long-run relationships between tax revenue and access to quality education, proxied by government expenditure on education. Tax revenue was disaggregated into major components, including petroleum profit tax, company income tax, customs and excise duties, value added tax, tertiary education tax, stamp duty, and capital gains tax. The findings indicate the existence of a long-run relationship between tax revenue and access to quality education in Nigeria. The results further reveal that tax revenue exerts a significant influence on educational access, suggesting that improvements in revenue mobilisation enhance funding availability for educational development. It is concluded that strengthening tax administration and prioritising education-focused allocation of tax revenue are vital for achieving sustainable human capital development in Nigeria. The study thus recommends that policymakers should prioritize initiatives aimed at optimizing tax revenue allocation towards the education sector which includes implementing targeted investments, infrastructure development, and educational programs to ensure a sustainable and equitable educational environment for all citizens