Islamic Finance Instruments as Alternative Financing to Sustainable Higher Education in Nigeria

Education is a vital tool for national growth and development. Higher education institutions provide the nation with skilled manpower needed to attain holistic development. Despite the roles played by higher education institutions in nation building, these institutions are at the edge of collapse as a result of poor funding. Government fund is not adequate to meet needs of students and higher education institutions. Several options like internal sources, government supports, use of tuition fees and a host of others have been provided but all yield little result. In order to find a lasting solution to the persisting financial problem facing higher education in the country, this paper presents the Islamic finance products as an alternative measure to sustainable higher education financing in Nigeria. It adopted a qualitative case study approach. Interview was conducted on eight experts including shariah experts, lecturers and educational administrators. At the end, the research study proposed that sukuk ( bond), waqf (endowment) and zakat (charity) should be used for providing facilities and support to higher education institutions in the area of research, provision of educational facilities, building of hostels for indigent students, payment of salary, provision of scholarship to students from poor background and a host of others. To achieve these, government, policy planners and leaders in higher education institutions in Nigeria must ensure collaboration with private investors, philanthropists, industries, zakat and endowment foundations and experts in Islamic finance to provide a lasting solution to the poor funding of higher education in the country.