INVESTMENT IN EDUCATION AND HOST COMMUNITY'S ECONOMIC BENEFITS: THE SAMUEL ADEGBOYEGA UNIVERSITY EXAMPLE

Abstract

Investment in education especially in private universities has become a dominant trend in Nigeria in the recent times and some factors have necessitated the location in rural communities. There is therefore the need to examine the impact of such investment on their host communities using Samuel Adegboyega University as a reference point. 100 households in the community were investigated using Probit regression to analyse the categorical variables such as ease of employment generation, growth in SMEs, community partnership and infrastructural development employed. Findings revealed that all these variables are significant and positive except for employment of male members of the household which is significant but negative. This implies that at the present the male- member of the households need higher education to achieve good pay in the university. The study therefore recommends that ll large- scale investors in education need to inculcate the livelihood means of the host communities into their programmes in order to empower them and make them self- reliance.