Higher Education, Knowledge Economy and Sustainable Development in Nigeria

Higher education no doubt possesses tremendous capacity in the acquisition of knowledge, development and sustainability of the human capacity of any nation, which is a prerequisite for economic growth and development among other factors. Developing this is strongly linked to knowledge economy. The quality of generated knowledge is critical to economic development. African countries need to possess and produce knowledge in order to be competitively relevant in the global economy. Higher Education Institutions, therefore, must operate more effectively and orient themselves to the demands of knowledge economy and sustainable national capacity development. This paper, therefore examined higher education provision in Nigeria, and discussed the challenges of its provision. It recommended a combination of access and quality education among others. Keywords: policies, higher education, capacity building, knowledge economy, sustainable developmen