Education in Nigeria (and Africa) : impacts and challenges of multilateral funding

Abstract

This study aims to explain the impact of funding from multilateral financial institutions on education in Africa, with specific focus on Nigeria. Although total official development assistance to Africa was $55 billion in 2015, that represents only part of the $161 billion in total given to all low- and middle-income countries (IFC data, 2016). Thus, the outlook for Africa and Nigeria remains challenging. I focus my exploration on the education sector in Nigeria, which has received a number of investments from multilateral financial institutions. My interest is the priority for funding over the ten-year period from 2007 to 2017 and reasons for this priority. My belief is that utmost priority should be given by the multilaterals and the World Bank to providing funds to increase education enrollments and reducing the child dropout rate in Nigeria.