Adult education is the practice of adults engaging in systematic and continuous self-education activities to acquire new types of information, skills, attitudes, or values. It is different from child education. On this note, the common consensus is that education contributes positively to both socio-economic development and development overall. Adult education enhances progression into other learning. There is strong evidence that successful learning engagement encourages subsequent learning. For an adult to sustainably balance to meet the 21st century socio-economic attainment he/she needs a functional literacy approach. This could be considered the usefulness of any literacy programme to the learners. It should answer questions such as: Will the adult learners use the knowledge acquired for immediate economic benefit? Do the skills provided for the learners enhance their productivity level subsequently? Can the learner function better now after the learning in such a manner that people within the community can feel the effect positively? If so, then the adult learners can be said to be functionally literate. This paperviews adult education as an indispensable tool for the attainment of socio-economic transformation. It also examines the concept of adult education, adult education and socio-economic transformation, challenges and the way forward to better equip adult education programmes for meaningful socio-economic development of the nation. It concludes that adults with required knowledge, attitudes and skills needed sustainable socio-economic transformation. This paper also recommends among others that computer literacy, trade, vocation, skills and or entrepreneurship, should be rigorously funded and invested in for economic advancement, self-reliance, self-employment, independence and self-help in order to increase income, improve living standards and to attain poverty reduction, especially, for the adults and the vulnerable groups in Nigeria, to fit into the world of works and to cope with globalization and its attendant benefits.