Abstract:
A nagging concern on the mind of all developing countries, Nigeria inclusive, is that of
development. The countries so referred to as developing, are in a hurry to “catch up” with the
more developed western countries of Europe, the U.S.A, Japan .Russia, China, among others.
To ensure sustainable economic growth and development in an economy, investment in human
capital is therefore essential. This paper attempts to assess Nigeria’s effort at human capital
development for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs).Other specific
objectives are to examine the role of the university in intellectual capital development; to
examine Nigeria’s skill acquisition programmes and unemployment reduction. Nigeria’s
development challenges were identified to include in-adequate financing, economic, socio¬
political, environmental, regional, science and technology, and corruption challenges were x-
rayed. The methodology adopted was that of the content analysis as sources of data were all
secondary from publications of the UN, the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s report to
the Rio+2 summit, and a review of publications in reputable international journals. The paper
recommended massive sensitization and awareness campaigns by Government, and the
establishment of a Sustainable development Fund (SDF) among other initiatives.
