Journal of Economics and Trade

Academic lecturers in Nigeria continue to experience financial distress due to a combination of systemic shortcomings, including inadequate salaries, delayed payments, limited institutional support, and poor infrastructure, as well as constraints that limit the extent to which they can translate financial knowledge and entrepreneurial skills into improved personal economic outcomes. These challenges undermine lecturers’ wellbeing, professional effectiveness, research productivity, and teaching quality, with broader implications for the higher education sector. This study examined the factors contributing to the financial struggles of academic lecturers in Nigerian universities, with specific objectives of identifying the systemic and institutional factors that influence lecturers’ financial wellbeing and exploring how individual behaviors, financial knowledge, and coping strategies affect their ability to achieve financial stability. The study was anchored on Self-Efficacy Theory and adopted a qualitative exploratory design. Primary data were collected through structured online interviews with thirty-seven lecturers purposively selected across Nigeria. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns in participants’ experiences and coping responses. The findings revealed that lecturers’ financial wellbeing is adversely affected by inadequate remuneration, delayed salary payments, limited institutional support, and weak infrastructure. The study also found that constrained application of financial knowledge, reliance on temporary coping strategies such as moonlighting and expenditure reduction, and inconsistent financial planning contribute to ongoing financial difficulties. The study concludes that addressing lecturers’ financial distress requires both institutional reforms and supportive strategies that strengthen lecturers’ capacity to manage financial challenges more effectively.