Al-Hikmah University Journal

The paper examines the effect of formal education illiteracy on economic development of Nigeria. The study employed the use of time series secondary data derived from NBS, CBN and World Bank data from 1990 to 2020. The data were analyzed using Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test, ARDL bounds cointegration test, and the diagnostic test of stability for ARDL model in order to have a suitable result. The research findings show that formal education illiteracy had significantly negative effect on economic development in Nigeria. Also, the result shows that there is a strong long run relationship between formal education illiteracy and economic development. The study therefore recommends on the government to make a constant upward review of budgetary allocation to education sector in Nigeria. This would perhaps looks into increase in the number of people seeking formal education most importantly the tertiary levels because only trained labour force can meaningfully and optimally contributes to societal development and economic growth in Nigeria at large.