Investing in education is widely recognized as a key component for a county to use in development. An increase in the
quality of education is associated with a wide range of benefits including increased productivity, reduced poverty and
inequality of income, and improved health and economic growth (see Lockheed et al. 1991). Spurred by such evidence,
governments in developing countries devote a substantial portion of their total expenditure to education1 To the contrary
there is ample evidence that many schools in these countries are not very effective, and operate far from any conceivable
efficient frontier (Marlaine Lockheed and Adriann Verspoor 1991; Ralph Harbison and Hanushek 1992: Hanushek 1995;
Glewwe 1999).

During the first two decades of independence, most countries in SSA invested in education, and enrolment rates in primary
and secondary education increased until 1980. At the individual level, these investments paid back handsomely as the
economy grew and skills were very scarce, yet at the macro level, the investments were lost in severe economic crisis of
1980-1995; whatever education people received, helped them personally, and at macro level, there appeared to be no
impact at all. Many people questioned the usefulness of education, in particular, higher education, which was often seen as
a luxury Africa could not afford. However during the 1990’s many countries in SSA experienced a crisis caused by a
decline in trade in exported raw materials and a misuse of power by the local elites; all of which resulted in poor policies
caused by the lack of education, higher education in particular.