Abstract

Over the years, education particularly adult and non-Formal education has suffered a lot of setbacks as a result of poor funding and lack of political will on the part of government and other stakeholders germane to the successful uptake and effective operation of adult literacy programmes in Nigeria. This lack of adequate financial commitment has greatly crippled the effectiveness of literacy programmes which hold the key to accelerated economic development of the country and provide opportunity for educational inclusion particularly for those living in the rural areas. Hence, this paper seeks to establish the need for adequate funding of adult literacy programmes considering its inherent benefits to the country and again, suggests some workable financing alternatives to reliance on government funding such as establishing literacy endowment funds, tapping from corporate social responsibilities of companies, introducing a payback clause to participation amongst other options available through which adult literacy programmes can be better funded to achieve a literate society for sustainable development of the country.