Abstract

Income inequality has the capacity to worsen the poverty level of citizens and limit opportunity for overall economic growth and development. The argument is that widening disparities in education attainment could increase the income gap among citizens. However, there seems to dearth of research on the link between income inequality and educational attainment in Nigeria. This study, therefore investigated the nexus between income inequality and educational attainment in Nigeria. A sample of 40,680 households was selected for the survey, with a minimum target of 943 completed interviews per state. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, multiple regression, co-variance analysis. The results show a positive relationship exists between those with higher educational qualifications (0.623931) and higher income earning ability. A negative relationship was also observed between High Income earners and just Pry Certificate holders (-0.627215) and between High Income earners and just Sec Certificate holders (-0.678510), This implied that as the level of educational attainment increases, the level of income earned also increases and vice versa. Moreover, 51.5% of those that have completed primary education earn low income, 28.7% for just secondary school certificate holders and 19.8 % of those who completed more than secondary school earn low-income earners. 20% of those who that have completed primary education earn high income while 26.1% and 53.7% for secondary school certificate holders and those with more than secondary school certificates respectively. This implied that there are disparities in levels of incomes among workers who have more access to quality education thus income increase significantly after elementary school completion. Other determinants apart from educational attainment such as Social background (0.376494) and Skills acquired (0.23385) also contributed positively, to the level of Income inequality in Nigeria. Expansion in the provision of quality higher education should be a prime objective of the government and relevant stakeholders since doing so will improve the level of educational attainment and at the same time, its distribution. Consequently, doing so can meet the twin goals of equity and efficiency at once thereby reducing the gap income inequality gap.