Education has been directly equated with the overall development process of any human society. Basic or primary education being the foundation, is necessary not only for the sake of basic literacy and numeracy, but because it prepares children or human for future challenges. The more adequate and qualitative the primary education is given to children, the more equipped and industrious the children would become in the future. Therefore, good administrative planning and provision of primary level of education is crucial in achieving educational development. This paper examines Universal Basic Education (UBE) as a programme designed to provide primary education, outline it`s policy thrust and nature of implementation as well as assessing the ways through which the scheme can tackle the educational challenges facing the country, for an achieved sustainable development. Secondary data was used comprising the UBE documents and various litratures written by scholars on education and development in order to analyse and assess the relationship between basic (primary) education and sustainable development in Nigeria.