Higher Education for Nigerians started around the time slave trade was abolished. It was a period for the freed slaves.
Samuel Ajayi Crowther was the first known Nigerian to receive some form of higher education in Nigeria, he was also one of the last slaves sold in West Africa and later repatriated to Freetown in 1822.
In 1826, he was taken go England to attend a parochail school in Islington and in 1827 he was the first to register as a student in the Fouray Bay College founded by the CMS to train the ministers of the church.
Mr Neasal, the principal of the college was impressed by the outstanding performance of Ajayi Crowtger and that he also posses a good character.
Christians missionaries in Nigeria helped in the establishment of education at all levels and go meet our basic and daily needs which was the aim of training people for ecclesiastical order.
Fouray Bay College opened the way to higher education for students from all former British colonies like Gambia, Sierra Lone, Ghana and Nigeria itself.
This development enhanced the Nigeria education and overall human development