Poverty in Nigeria: Examining the Causes of Extreme Deprivation and Sustainable Anti-Poverty Strategies

Poverty in Nigeria: Examining the Causes of Extreme Deprivation and Sustainable Anti-Poverty Strategies

OKORIE Oko Ume Ph.D

Abia State University, Uturu

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.916SCO0019

Received: 02 September 2025; Accepted: 10 September 2025; Published: 13 October 2025

ABSTRACT

Poverty is a multifaceted phenomenon in today’s globalised world. It is rooted in various causes, and there are also multiple ways to do away with it. This paper begins with a review of the definitions and measurement of poverty and followed by a discussion of the various causes of poverty. This paper specifically identifies corruption, education, political instability, geographical characteristics, ineffective local governance, and government policies as the causes of poverty. It then suggests possible solutions or recommendations to eradicate poverty based on the causes discussed earlier. Some of the suggestions include strengthening democratic transparency and government budget transparency, public awareness, creating of a framework for economic growth and transformation, and ways to increase the ability of the poor to raise their income. Content analysis was adopted to reach at conclusion from available documented information while Structural Theory of Poverty and Sustainable Livelihoods Frameworks guided the discussion and conclusions

INTRODUCTION

Poverty is the oldest and most resistant virus that brings about a devastating disease in the third world or developing countries (Tazoacha, 2001). Its rate of killing cannot be compared to any disease from the genesis of mankind. It is worse than malaria and HIV/AIDS, which are claimed to be the deadliest diseases (Tazoacha, 2001), and even worse than EBOLA  or COVID 19. Despite the renewed commitment over the past 25 years and more to poverty reduction as the core objective of international development discourses and policies, progress to this end remains disappointing (UNDP, 2003). This is particularly evident in the extent to which the world is off track to achieve most of the Millennium Development Goals, globally and in most regions and countries (UNDP, 2003). This inadequate progress raises important questions about the policies and strategies adopted to achieve poverty reduction, as well as key international issues, including aid, debt, and trade. Nigeria has enormous natural resources, and yet it is poor and stagnant in growth and development. In other words, in spite of all the wealth resources, including human and material in its possession, Africa is the world’s poorest continent. The World Bank has disclosed that the poverty rate among Nigeria’s rural population has reached an alarming 75.5 per cent, highlighting deepening inequality and widespread economic hardship across the country. According to the World Bank’s latest April 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief for Nigeria, rural dwellers are overwhelmingly bearing the brunt of economic stagnation, inflation, and structural challenges that have characterized the country’s growth trajectory in recent years. The data, derived from Nigeria’s most recent nationally representative surveys, show that while 41.3 per cent of the urban population lives below the poverty line, the figure for rural Nigeria is almost double. The report read, “Based on the most recent official household survey data from Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics, 30.9 per cent of Nigerians lived below the international extreme poverty line of $2.15 per person per day (2017 PPP) in 2018/19 before the COVID-19 pandemic. “Nigeria remains spatially unequal. The poverty rate in northern geopolitical zones was 46.5 per cent in 2018/19, compared with 13.5 per cent for southern ones. Inequality measured by the Gini index was estimated at 35.1 in 2018/19. “Nigeria’s Prosperity Gap — the average factor by which individuals’ incomes must be multiplied to attain a prosperity standard of $25 per day for all — is estimated at 10.2, higher than most peers. ”These figures highlight the stark economic divide across different parts of the country, which has persisted despite various interventions aimed at inclusive growth. In addition to rural poverty, the Bank’s brief revealed troubling trends across demographic groups. Children aged between 0 to 14 years had a poverty rate of 72.5 per cent, while 63.9 per cent of females and 63.1 per cent of males were classified as poor at the lower-middle-income poverty line of $3.65 per day. In recent years, poverty challenges have intensified due to economic recessions in 2016 and 2020, driven by falling oil prices and insecurity. Despite the launch of Social Investment Programs (SIPs) under the Buhari administration, including N-Power, Trader Moni, and Conditional Cash Transfers, Nigeria became the “poverty capital of the world” in 2018, surpassing India in terms of the number of people living in extreme poverty (Brookings Institution, 2018). These programs have struggled to make a dent in long-term poverty due to issues of limited reach, inadequate funding, and corruption (World Bank, 2020).

Conceptual Framework:

Structural Theory of Poverty and Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF)William Ryan, Robert Chambers, and Gordon Conway at IDS, Sussex, would be considered for the study. These two philosophers emphasize that poverty arises from social structures rather than individual failings. Marxist theorists and dependency theorists argue that poverty results from systemic inequalities in capitalist societies. Nigerian scholars like II Naiya (2013) have applied this theory empirically, showing Nigeria’s slow structural transformation as a root cause of persistent poverty and inequality in Nigeria. Poverty results from systemic socio-economic and political disparities baked into society. Nigeria’s overreliance on oil and neglect of industrial transformation led to an economy that fails to absorb labor productively, keeping many in poverty. Together, the two theories give a comprehensive lens on poverty in Nigeria, explaining systemic causes and pathways for sustainable poverty alleviation through asset building and policy change.

The Concept And Definition Of Poverty

The word “poverty” and/or “poor” originated from the Latin word pauper, meaning poor, which has its roots in the words pau- and pario, meaning “giving birth to nothing,” referring to unproductive livestock and farmland (Westover, 2008). Historically, the idea that some people are trapped in poverty while others have spells in poverty was a central element of most analyses (Hulme and Mckay, 2005). For example, officials and social commentators in eighteenth-century France distinguished between l’hepauvre and the indigent.

The former experienced seasonal poverty when crops failed or demand for casual agricultural labour was low. The latter were permanently poor because of ill health (physical and mental), accident, age, or alcoholism. The central aim of policy was to support the poor in ways that would stop them from becoming indigent (Hulme and McKay, 2005).

In contemporary times, this durational aspect of poverty has been relatively neglected, and conceptual development, and more particularly measurement, has focused on severity/depth and multidimensionality. This has been especially the case in economies where serious work on duration only began to emerge in the late 1980s (Gaiha 1993). An implicit assumption of much research was that the persistence of poverty at the individual and household level was highly correlated with the severity of poverty. During the early 1990s, such work began to proliferate based on available panel data sets, and in 2000, the first collection of papers on this topic was published (Baulch and Hoddinnott 2000). According to the United Nations Human Development Report, (1998), poverty is defined as a complex phenomenon that generally refers to inadequacy of resources and deprivation of choices that would enable people to enjoy decent living conditions. Yunus (1994) on the other hand defines it as the denial of human rights relating to the fulfilment of basic human needs. Poverty is hunger. Poverty is a lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor (World Bank, 2005). Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom (World Bank, 2005). According to the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) (2004), poverty is now recognised as multi-dimensional with complex interactive and causal relationship between the dimensions. According to SIDA (2005), the poor often lack access to finance and income-earning opportunities.

The subject of poverty has been a major issue on both national and international scale, predominantly among the developing countries (Balogun, 1999). According to Balogun (1999), poverty could be described as a condition where a society barely survives on a level of subsistence, coupled with limited access to the necessities of physiological factors such as clothing, food, and appropriate accommodation, to maintain a basic standard of living. In the view of the World Bank and The World Development Report (WDR), observations made suggest that conditions could be expressed as poor if people live on a per capita income lower than US $370 at any given time (WDR, 1999) or as being extremely poor by living on less than US$ 1 per day, and moderately poor by living on less than US$2 daily (World Bank, 2007). The statement also projects that “1.1 billion people in 2001 had expenditures below US$1 a day and 2.7 billion lived on less than US$2 a day”. Poverty as a condition is not only confined to developing nations, but it’s also a universal phenomenon that could be observed in a set of social problems, including homelessness and the persistence of “ghetto” housing clusters (World Bank,2007).

In attempting to summarise the definition of poverty, Englama and Bamidele (1997) asserted that poverty in both relative and absolute terms refers to a circumstance where a person is not able to fend or provide sufficiently for his or her necessities or fundamental human requirements such as clothing and decent accommodation, food, the fulfilment of social and economic responsibilities, non-access to productive employment, lack of skills, resources and confidence; and has restricted admission to economic and social infrastructure. These include access to health, education, potable water, sanitation, and roads. These preclude the person from advancing in welfare, which is limited by the scarce availability of economic and social infrastructure. They concluded by terming this situation as being subject to a “lack of capabilities” (Englama and Bamidele, 1997). Mollie Orhansky, who is credited with the development of poverty measures in the United States by the government, also denotes that poverty is the deprivation of those necessaries as well as pleasures which are taken for granted by other people (Schwartz, 2005). According to Mollie Orshansky, cited by Schwartz (2005), a state of poverty is to be deprived of those goods, services, and pleasures which others around us take for granted. Fallavier (1998) defines poverty as a structure of segregation from society and groups devoid of acceptance within a productive setup. In his view, poverty denies one access and the right to be part of society in a productive manner. He further reinforces this notion by drawing a link between the poor and the profusion of HIV/ AIDS as compared to the rich in society. He stated that the poor are not only in a position with limited access to good food, but also without the capabilities to sustain themselves with their own food, which threatens their security. Deducing from Fallavier’s (1998) notion, the economic and financial implications of poverty are that it precludes individuals from moving from subsistence to commercial productivity, which also affects business development.

Another definition of poverty stresses economic opportunity. This concept is the most difficult to measure empirically, but it is typically the most central in theory and public policy debates.

One might define the poor as those whose economic opportunities are severely limited by parental wealth, race, religion or other traits (Solon, 1999). Poverty is also defined by ABD Institute (2003) as an income (or more broadly welfare) level below a socially acceptable minimum. The definition also widens to include precariousness, vulnerability, and insecurity (especially that of employment) and exclusion from social life. The results of the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) Survey put the picture clearer. The survey, which sampled over 56,000 households across the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT, was conducted between November 2021 and February 2022, and provides multidimensional poverty estimates at the senatorial district level.

• 63% of persons living within Nigeria (133 million people) are multidimensionally poor.
• The National MPI is 0.257, indicating that poor people in Nigeria experience just over one-quarter of all possible deprivations.
• 65% of the poor (86 million people) live in the North, while 35% (nearly 47 million) live in the South. Poverty levels across States vary significantly, with the incidence of multidimensional poverty ranging from a low of 27% in Ondo to a high of 91% in Sokoto.
• Over half of the population of Nigeria are multidimensionally poor and cook with dung, wood or charcoal, rather than cleaner energy. High deprivations are also apparent nationally in sanitation, time to healthcare, food insecurity, and housing.
• In general, the incidence of monetary poverty is lower than the incidence of multidimensional poverty across most states. In Nigeria, 40.1% of people are poor according to the 2018/19 national monetary poverty line, and 63% are multidimensionally poor according to the National MPI 2022.
• Multidimensional poverty is higher in rural areas, where 72% of people are poor, compared to 42% of people in urban areas.

• Two-thirds (67.5%) of children (0–17) are multidimensionally poor according to the National MPI, and half (51%) of all poor people are children.
• The highest deprivations are in the indicator of child engagements, where over half of poor children lack the intellectual stimulation that is pivotal to early childhood development.
• Child poverty is prevalent in rural areas, with almost 90% of rural children experiencing poverty.
• Across the geo-political zones, the child MPI shows higher poverty in the North-East and North-West (where 90% of children are poor) and lower poverty in the South-East and South-West (74% and 65.1% respectively). The incidence of Child MPI is above 50% in all States and greater than 95% in Bayelsa, Sokoto, Gombe, and Kebbi.
• Four million Nigerians – 2.1% of the population – live with a child aged 15–17 who is the first generation in that household to have completed primary school.

Causes Of Poverty

CORRUPTION: The concept of “Corruption” is contested both theoretically and politically and is an inherently complex and ambiguous concept. It occurs at the individual, family, community, or national levels. As a concept, it has become what Sachs (1992:4) describes as “an amoeba-like concept, shapeless but ineradicable that spreads everywhere because it represents the best of intentions that create the platform for right and left elites and grass roots fight their battles” (Momoh, 2018). It is against this backdrop that Momoh (2013) asserts that corruption as a concept is in the eye of the beholder. He added that it depends on the aspect of corruption a particular researcher seeks to investigate. Here, we shall adopt the definition provided by Momoh (2015) as our walking definition, in which he sees corruption as any act by a person or group of persons that deprives a person or group of persons from benefiting or having access to the collective good of an association, organization, community, society, or a country.  The World Bank recognizes the harmful effects of corruption, It argues that the practice “Weakens public service delivery, misdirects public resources, and holds back the growth that is necessary to pull people out of poverty. It also undermines the moral fabric of the state. Corrupt regimes often sustain themselves by rewarding supporters and perpetuating patronage networks (Ehiedu et al., 2020). At the 2000 United Nations Millennium Summit, global leaders laid out a roadmap for achieving sustainable development by promoting peace, political stability, and investing significantly in education, healthcare, and infrastructure to enhance human well-being (Abdullahi et al., 2023). It is widely recognized today as a symptom of poor governance and a major obstacle to poverty reduction efforts which causes reduction in quality of goods and services available to the public. While in the past, some scholars argued that corruption could increase economic efficiency in countries with burdensome regulations and dominant government role in the economy. Corruption can have adverse consequences, both directly and indirectly, especially for the poor countries in South Asia, Indo China, Central American, Brazil and Africa. Although, higher economic growth rate is associated with a higher rate of poverty reduction, in reality, the attitude of corruption slows the rate of poverty reduction, undermines economic growth, and the general welfare of the community of that particular country. It can thus be expected that corrupt governments are interested in private gains rather than in supporting the development of their own people and countries. Public sector corruption is defined as the abuse of public power for private benefit. Corruption refers to preferential access to public goods and services, gratuitous insuring of public procurement and contracts, illegal hiring in the public sector, bribery or grafting, abuse of official information, inconsistent application of rules etc.  The phenomenon leads to forfeiture of public trust. In many countries, money collected from corruption is used to finance political parties. By undermining the purpose of government intervention into the economy, corruption is the main cause of government failure due to misallocated resources as caused by denigrating the country developmental objective that leads to country poverty.

Secondly, corruption in income inequality can be harmful to a country’s growth, by adversely affecting the economic growth, limiting poverty reduction and deterring investment into the country. In other words, as inequality increases, so does the poverty level of the country. As income inequality increases, the rich have more to lose at fair political, administrative, and judicial processes but the rich also have greater resources that can be used to buy influence, both legally and illegally law law-making process. The rich, as a class or as interest groups, can use legal lobbying and political contributions or bribery (grand political corruption) to influence law-making processes. The rich, as interest groups, as firms, or as individuals, may use bribery or connections to influence law-implementing processes (bureaucratic corruption) and to buy favorable interpretations of the law (judicial corruption). Johnston, Gupta, Hendriks, and Li 2000 argue that corruption increases income inequality through several channels. First, to the extent that corruption decreases economic growth and development, which is more likely to increase the income share of the poor than the rich, it increases income inequality and the poverty level of the country. Second, as inequality increases, there will likely be a demand more extensive redistribution through higher level of progressive taxation. This leads to a bias of the tax system which is in favor of the rich. As the redistributive pressures increase, the rich correspondingly will have greater motivation to use political corruption to lower the tax rates and the bureaucratic corruption to further circumvent the collection of taxes. Thus, making the not effective tax system regressive, it places additional burden on the tax system, and the pressure eventually falls disproportionately on the poor which lead to an increase in the poverty level of the country. For example, in African countries, the notional tax system is not regressive. However, corruption allows the rich and powerful to escape their tax obligations, hence the tax burden falls almost exclusively on the poor. Corruption leads to the concentration of assets among a few wealthy elite that can influence public policy and increase income inequality. Because earning power depends, to some extent, on resource endowment (including inherited wealth), the rich are able to use their wealth to further consolidate their economic and political power such as trade policies, including exchange rate, spending programs and preferential tax treatment of their assets. These policies will result in higher returns to the assets owned by the wealthy and lower returns to the assets owned by the less well-to-do, thereby increasing income inequality. Furthermore, the rich can use their assets as collateral to borrow and invest in business which will therefore lead to inequality in ownership of assets that will limit the ability of the poor to borrow to increase their lifetime income and will perpetuate poverty in income inequality. Fields argues that the choice of development strategy influences income inequality as an intensive development strategy leads to equitable distribution of income, while the opposite is true for a capital-intensive development strategy. In African countries, production decisions are highly influenced by an elaborate system of taxes and subsidies. While capital is heavily subsidized, labor is taxed at a high rate with the result that businesses choose capital-intensive technologies over labor-intensive ones. This policy of subsidizing capital is exacerbated by a high level of corruption in most African countries. This strategy leads to low demand for labor, low wages, a strategy that effectively redistributes income from the poor to the rich since the subsidies are paid with taxes paid by the poor.

EDUCATION: Poverty is not only a problem of low incomes but it is a multidimensional problem that includes low access to opportunities for developing human capital and education. Due to the multidimensional problem, more attention needs to be focused on investment in human capital, particular in education as a means to increase earnings, quality of jobs and improve the quality of life, such as better utilization of health facilities, shelter, water, and sanitation. Statistically, the effect of schooling exists with rates of return as high 16 percent per year. For instance, the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) allocated ₦1.1 billion (approximately $7.5 million) in 2006 to train 6,446 rural workers in vocational skills. However, by 2007, it was reported that over 258,590 individuals had abandoned the programme without engaging in any productive activity (Ehiedu et al., 2020). Similarly, the Universal Basic Education Programme (UBEP) has faced major setbacks, with over 64% of Nigerian children of school-age still lack access to formal education (Idoko, 2022). This alarming figure reflects the deep-rooted failures in policy execution and highlights how corruption undermines fundamental rights, such as access to education (Abdullahi et al., 2023). These examples underscore the destructive impact of corruption on Nigeria’s developmental efforts. From poverty eradication to education, corruption weakens institutional effectiveness and stalls progress.

However, poor countries increase their poverty level due to lack of training skills, productive knowledge and transforms human beings into more valuable human capital and education. Without proper training for the respective skills and knowledge in the work force such as read, write, communicate and be able to choose different choices in a more informed way would lead to low earnings and therefore increase the poverty level. For example, in the United States, 22.9 percent or 6.4 million people are without a high school diploma, whereas only 3.6 percent or 2 million people have a college degree or higher. Education yields attractive returns, comparable with alternative rates of return, both to the individual and to society at large. Without education it would not broaden the base understanding among people, which would deter the democratic process, which in turn could not pave the way to the promotion of sustainable development, through a better understanding of the intimate relation between environment, ecology and sustainable development. Thus, by strengthening democratic forces, education would help in promoting sustainable human development, making rapid social progress, including abolition of the containment of the elite’s discretionary power and wider social equity.

Education can be a life-changing experience for all and what the poor need most is empowerment. Thus, education serves at the same time both the constitutive and instrumental roles of development. While recognizing the economic importance of education, it would increase incomes, reduce poverty levels, increase the development of the country and decrease unemployment rates. Education has a direct relevance of the well-being and freedom of the people, while its indirect role is through its influence on social change and economic production

The features of educational poverty include non-participation or low rates of participation of children in schooling, high rates of drop out and failures, low rates of continuation in schooling, low rates of achievement and finally exclusion of the poor from education. All these aspects of education poverty are closely related with income poverty. Individuals without a high school degree in average experience unemployment rates that are around 3 to 5 times greater than with individual with college degree. In other words, poverty is predominant among illiterates and it is almost a non-existent phenomenon among educated households.

Several studies on educational deprivation have also shown how income poverty causes education poverty. Poverty and economic constraints keep many children from economically poor families away from school. Income poverty may force children to be out of school for various reasons and thus they are denied the opportunity of participating in schooling. A larger proportion of children from the poor families participate in low-wage employment yielding economic activities. Low-wage employment has limited benefits, poor working environment and shrinking wages which further lead to families in poverty level. Over 29 million workers or one fourth (24.5%) of the workforce in the United States earns poverty level wages. The poverty level wages at the market are US$7.36 as compared to US$ 18.07 for the total workforce. In non-wage related economic activities like household chores and in activities that may relieve their parents or adult member of the household so that they can participate in wage-related activities. Therefore, due to income poverty, very few achieve level of learning or proper education. In other words, employment alone does not prevent entry into poverty if the wages are too low.

POLITICAL INSTABILITY: Arguably, countries that are rich in natural resources may be prone to civil wars due to “loot-seeking’ activities. References indicate that countries with both dependence upon primary commodity exports and a large diaspora significantly increase the risk of conflict. This has been a widespread phenomenon in Africa. Political instability, characterized by weak control of corruption, poor government effectiveness, and frequent violence, appears to be a significant impediment. For instance, Transparency International (2023) ranked Nigeria 145 out of 180 countries in its Corruption Perceptions Index, with a score of 24 out of 100, indicating rampant corruption. Similarly, the underperformance is attributed to a lack of capacity to address complex governance issues, with political leadership driven by self-interest rather than public good, further exacerbating poverty (Yagboyaju and Akinola, 2019). Violent conflicts, such as those in the Niger Delta and the Northeast, have displaced populations and disrupted economic activities, contributing to higher poverty Elbadawi (1999) suggested that by their detrimental nature, civil wars lead to poverty mainly due to destruction of capital, displacement of people, and increased insecurity. Civil wars can be disruptive to capital or transactions-intensive activities such as roads, production of manufactures, or financial services. They can divert expenditure and the nation’s resources from economic services to the war efforts and they can divert portfolios from domestic investment into capital flight. The civil war and genocide that happened in the 1990-2000 period in Rwanda also caused economic impacts on the country’s provinces. The wars resulted in more than 60% of its 8 million people living below the poverty level. A report by an international group of human rights experts documented the disruption in agricultural production and in the lives of northern villagers. Before the war, relative to other regions in Rwanda, these Northern provinces were areas of surplus production providing potatoes to the rest of the country. Consequently, Justino and Verwimp (2008) discovered that these previously richer provinces had then experienced lower, even negative economic growth compared to the poorer western and southern provinces. Also, they found that households whose house was destroyed or who lost land encountered a greater risk of falling into poverty.

NATURAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Many countries are inherently poor due.to their geographic characteristics that predispose them to weak economic growth. For example, most Africans live much further from the sea coast or navigable rivers than in other regions and hence face higher transportation costs for exports. Furthermore, much of the population lives in countries that are landlocked. Also, these problems of distance are compounded by political barriers. Mainly, the landlocked countries are surrounded by national borders on all sides. This may constitute an irreducible barrier to trade even if they have good relations with their neighbors. Nevertheless, African nations appear to have more ethnic diversity than other poor nations of the world, which may make it harder to develop an interconnected economy. Typically, growth regressions find that being landlocked reduces a nation’s annual growth rate by around half of 1 %. Besides, much of the African continent is tropical, and the slow economic growth of this continent is due to “the curse of the tropics”. Notably, Africa’s adverse climate causes poor health. The life expectancy has historically been low. Even with the population in a high-fertility region, it is equally offset by high infant mortality. This is partly caused by tropical diseases such as malaria.

The adverse climate also leads to leached soils and unreliable rainfall. Five million to 12 million hectares of land are lost annually to severe degradation, and soil degradation affects 65 percent of African croplands and 40 percent of Asian croplands, in part because of nitrogen and phosphorus losses. Much of the Africa continent is semi-arid, with rainfall subject to long cycles and unpredictable failure. Soils derive disproportionately from a very old type of rock, which is low in micronutrients and varies considerably between localities. Since the 1960s, the semi-arid areas of Africa have been in a phase of declining rainfall. While there are no estimates of the output consequences of this decline, it may be significant, since agriculture is typically about one-quarter of GDP in this region. Given the lack of irrigation, the unpredictability of rainfall implies high risks in agriculture. This has created a hostile condition that restricts agricultural activities.

Other than that, countries such as Ethiopia suffer from famine as a consequence of continuous drought throughout the year. According to the World Food Programme, there are at least 14 million people at risk because drought decreases food production in that country. Besides, about one-third of Bangladesh gets flooded during the Monsoon season each year, which has seriously hindered the agricultural activities. The country also suffers from natural disasters such as drought and hurricanes, which cause property and life losses. Given their geographically unfavorable situations, these countries are in fact standing on a disadvantaged route to escape the poverty trap.

INEFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE & GOVERNMENT POLICIES:  Most African governments have been undemocratic for much of the post-colonial period. The median African government during the 1970s and 1980s was close to autocracy. The ineffective local governance and government policies seem to prevent the chronically poor from escaping the poverty trap. A typical pattern is that governments are controlled by the ruling elites, educated, urban resident population who are resistant or indifferent to pro-poor policies. These political elites use the poor as hostages to personally benefit from aid resources and debt relief. Besides, most of these governments tend to expand the public sector, while imposing wide-ranging controls on private activity. These decisions have been economically costly. For example, in Ghana, by the late 1970s, the public sector accounted for three-quarters of formal wage employment, and even in a more market-oriented economy like Kenya, the figure was 50 percent as of 1990. Essentially, due to the lack of democracy, neither were they accountable to the broader public. As a result, this has lowered the quality of public services despite relatively high public expenditure. Poor service delivery handicapped firms through unreliable transport and power, inadequate telecommunications networks, and unreliable courts. For example, manufacturing firms in Zimbabwe need to hold high levels of inventories, despite high interest rates, due to unreliable delivery of inputs tied to poor transportation infrastructure. A survey of Ugandan firms found that shortage of electricity was identified as the single most important constraint upon firm growth; indeed, the provision of electricity by firms for their own use was almost as large as the public supply of electricity. The poor state of African telecommunications was estimated to reduce African growth rates by 1 percentage point. African commercial courts are more corrupt than those in other regions. As a result, firms face greater problems of contract enforcement. The problem of contract enforcement thus makes markets less competitive and reduces the potential gains from trade.

African governments built various economic control regimes. A few nations, such as Ethiopia, Angola, and Tanzania, had wide-ranging price controls under which private agents have an incentive to reduce production least officially marketed production. More commonly, firms were subject to considerable regulation. For example, for many years, manufacturing firms wishing to set up in Kenya had to acquire letters of no objection from existing producers, which resulted in a predictably low level of competition.

In recent decades, African governments adopted exchange rate and trade policies that were atypically anti-export and accumulated large foreign debts. On a range of indicators, Africa has had much higher trade barriers and more misaligned exchange rates than other regions, Tariffs and export taxes were higher in Africa than in other regions of the world, partly because of the lack of other sources of tax revenue to finance the expansion of the public sector. Exports were sharply reduced as a result of export crop taxation. For example, Tanzanian cotton exports would have been 50 percent higher in the absence of taxation.

Problems Of Poverty Alleviation Schemes In Nigeria

In order to make the foregoing discussions explicitly clear and more meaningful, there is the inevitable need to examine the problems associated with some of the previous poverty alleviation schemes in Nigeria. Several of these schemes and programmes have been implemented in the past and include the following.

The Family Economic Advancement Programme, (FEAP) established by decree No. 11 of 1997, is responsible for providing the capital and indigenous equipment to cooperative societies and running productive micro and small enterprises.

The National Directorate of Employment (NDE), established by decree No 24 of 1989; whose vocational skills development and small-scale enterprises programmes are designed to create self-employment and at the same time combat mass unemployment.

The People’s Bank Programme, (PBN) established by decree No 22 of 1990, is designed to extend credit services to the poor.

The Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) is responsible for the rehabilitation and provision of urban roads, water, health facilities, educational materials, and agricultural facilities.

The Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructures (DFRRI), responsible for financing the construction and rehabilitation of rural infrastructure (roads, water,  dams, rural electrification etc). The Better Life Programme (BLP), aimed at alleviating rural poverty, particularly among women. The Family Support Programme (FSP) is meant to provide social and welfare services To help the family improve their living standard. The Oil and Mineral Producing Areas Development Committee (OMPADEC), provides development aid to the oil-producing areas. National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) for the provision of agricultural infrastructures. The Nomadic Education Programme – to raise the literacy level among the nomadic groups. River Basin Development Authorities (RBDA) for the development of the basins of the country’s major rivers.

National Social Investment Programmes (NSIPs) (launched 2016):The Federal Government of Nigeria established the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP) in 2016, to tackle poverty and hunger across the country. The suite of programmes under the NSIP focuses on ensuring a more equitable distribution of resources to vulnerable populations, including children, youth, and women. Since 2016, these programmes combined have supported more than 4 million beneficiaries country-wide through a fair and transparent process supported by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning (MBNP) and other notable MDAs with aligned goals

The N-Power programme is designed to assist young Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 35 to acquire and develop lifelong skills for becoming change makers in their communities and players in the domestic and global markets, and to receive a stipend of N30,000 monthly.

The Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme directly supports those within the lowest poverty bracket by improving nutrition, increasing household consumption, and supporting the development of human capital through cash benefits to various categories of the poor and vulnerable. The support is contingent upon fulfilling both soft and hard co-responsibilities that enable recipients to improve their standard of living.

The Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) is a micro-lending program that targets traders, artisans, enterprising youth, farmers, and women by offering loans from N10,000 to N100,000 at no monthly cost to beneficiaries. The Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSF) aims to provide school meals to young children, focusing on increasing school enrollment, reducing malnutrition rates—especially among the poor and those who cannot afford a meal a day—empowering community women as cooks, and supporting small farmers to boost economic growth.

Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) (launched 2017): The primary purpose of Nigeria’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), launched in 2017, is to revive the Nigerian economy and restore sustainable growth in the medium term (2017-2020). The plan has three main objectives:

1. Restore economic growth, achieve macroeconomic stability, and promote economic diversification focused on agriculture, energy, MSMEs, manufacturing, and key services, leveraging science and technology.
2. Invest in the Nigerian people by increasing social inclusion, creating jobs, reducing unemployment (particularly youth unemployment), and improving healthcare and education.
3. Build a globally competitive economy by increasing investment in infrastructure (such as power, rail, and roads), improving the business environment to attract investors, and promoting digital-led industrial growth.

The ERGP aims to drive inclusive and sustainable economic growth while addressing the challenges of recession, unemployment, and underinvestment in critical sectors.

Comprehensive policy framework focused on industrialization, job creation, infrastructure development, and economic diversification to promote economic stability and reduce poverty.

National Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy (NPRGS) (approved 2021):The primary purpose of the National Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy (NPRGS), approved in 2021 in Nigeria, is to significantly reduce poverty through inclusive economic growth and social protection. The strategy aims to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty over a 10-year horizon by focusing on job creation, improved welfare, and balanced regional development. It emphasizes infrastructure development, income generation, employment opportunities, and the implementation of a national social protection system to create a pathway from poverty to economic empowerment for all citizens, including women and vulnerable groups. The NPRGS is designed to support sustainable socio-economic development and enhance living standards while addressing structural barriers to poverty reduction

A 10-year strategy (2021-2031) with major budget allocations (N150 billion in 2024 budget) on macroeconomic stability, industrialization, structural reforms, and redistributive programs targeting rural poverty.

Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund (N20 trillion) for infrastructure-driven job creation.

Expanded the Conditional Cash Transfer program, covering 15 million households with monthly grants.

Food Security Council and fertilizer distribution to farmers for boosting local food production.

Other state-level and community poverty alleviation initiatives focusing on skill development programs and economic empowerment have also been implemented alongside the above federal programs.

However, it is sad to observe that all these efforts have not produced the desired results, as they have only achieved modest successes while the level of poverty still remains high. Several reasons have been given for the failure of these institutions and programs. First, some functions of these agencies and programs have been duplicated, leading to unnecessary overlap and competing interests. Second, in some cases, the implementation agencies have been wrongly identified, resulting in roles and responsibilities being misallocated. Third, Aliyu (1999) argued that in some instances, the appropriate or correct implementation agencies do not exist, creating gaps in the implementation process. Additionally, there is the problem of poor management, lack of accountability, high levels of corruption and dishonesty, pursuit of parochial interests, inadequate staffing, incompetence, lack of commitment, and lack of motivation among the workers in many of the implementation agencies. In fact, this is a major issue affecting most public agencies in Nigeria. (Aluko, 1999).

Suggested Strategies For Poverty Reduction In Nigeria

Since the causes of poverty are multidimensional, in the same way the strategies for poverty reduction must also be multidimensional. The following suggestions were made.

According to Aliyu (1999) a very strong and solid foundation is essential for the successful implementation of poverty reduction programmes in any developing country. The solid base is in the areas of:

• National Security and Political stability;
• Discipline;
• Infrastructural Development;
• Economic stability and provision of adequate welfare services.

Again the World Bank in its 1990 report suggests two strategies. These are:

1. Promotion of the productive use of the poor’s most abundant asset-labour. This invariably calls for policies that create market incentives, stable social and political institutions, good infrastructure and adaptable technology.
2. The second is to make basic social services available to the poor. Hence primary health care, family planning, balanced nutrition and primary education are of prime importance. The five major strategies suggested are- economic, political, social, agricultural and ideological. Firstly, economic growth remains the primary means of reducing poverty and improving the quality of life. Therefore, economic policies should be directed towards poverty reduction.

There should be increased sectoral allocation to the productive sectors of the economy e.g. industries, in order to create more jobs and raise the level of employment. Unemployment is perceived to be a major source of poverty in Nigeria FOS, 1996). There is a unanimous view that adequate employment opportunities are lacking, given that Nigeria’s economic problems have seriously affected industrial growth, which could have eased the problem. Poverty cannot be reduced in Nigeria in the face of the present high level of unemployment. The best strategy therefore is to embark on economic policies that will give room for expansion in industries and thus create more jobs. The ongoing retrenchment exercise in the public sector should stop as the labour market is already oversaturated and will only aggravate the problem at hand (CDHR, 1996; NHDR, 1996; Socio-Economic Profile of Nigeria FOS, 1996). Again, the nation must adopt economic policies that will facilitate the redistribution of wealth and incomes in order to solve the problem of inequalities and at the same time reduce the margin between the rich and the poor. This must not be left open to mechanisms of the market which according to Giddens (1996) backfired in Britain by actually swelling the numbers of those living in subsistence poverty. And as such the redistribution of wealth and income requires conscious strategy rather than being left open to the market forces.

In addition to the foregoing, poverty can be reduced in Nigeria if some of the existing Banks and financial institutions are recapitalized (1) make more funds available to investors and industrialists (2) facilitate the establishment of small-scale industries (3) expand the scale of operation of the existing industries and maximize capacity utilization. On the long run, recapitalization of the existing Banks and financial institutions will help to reduce unemployment and subsequently reduce the level of poverty. Again, a poverty alleviation programme must be investment driven. Therefore, policy must include measures to increase investment and improve allocation among sectors and projects. This must be tactically done to ensure widespread employment.

Aliyu (1999) stated that as a result of negative economic policies adopted by government, there are clear indications of dwindling productivity, under-utilization of installed capacity, closure of industries and increased importation of goods and services which could easily be sourced locally. All these have increased the number of people living below the poverty line in Nigeria. In order to effectively address the problem of poverty, some important fiscal and industrial policies adopted by government need to be seriously re-examined. (NHDR, 1996)

In general, the capacity and effective performance of political institutions and governance are very essential to reduction of poverty in Nigeria. In Nigeria, many people remain poor because of leadership problems on the one hand and the problem of total neglect on the other hand. Many Nigerian leaders do not understand the domestic problems plaguing and affecting their citizens and even when they are in the know of it they do not care. This is the more reason why in the allocation of resources the poor are generally neglected. In the formulation of economic and social policies the poor are not targeted. To this end, the government must consciously draw and design programmes of action and policies that will reduce the incidence of poverty. This calls for rational governmental planning and disciplined leadership.

Aliyu (1999) and NHDR (1998) again made two submissions. First, they argued that one of the strategies for reducing poverty is to fight corruption and embezzlement of funds, issues that have become a bane of governance and resource use in Nigeria. Elimination of corruption must be seen as an integral part of a poverty alleviation strategy.

Second, they argued that poverty reduction programmes must be given adequate and sustained funding to create the necessary conducive atmosphere for effective implementation. The funding of such programmes should not be subjected to the whims and caprices of any government in power. The annual allocation to poverty reduction programmes must be specified as a percentage of the national budget and should not be interfered with, no matter who assumes the mantle of leadership of the country. The NHDR (1998) further suggested that Nigeria should subscribe to and fully implement the 20:20 compact on human development. This means that Federal, state and local governments would commit every year not less than 20 percent of their combined recurrent and capital budgets to the following specific human development targets during the next ten years: Education:

(i)        Basic education for all;

(ii)       Reduction of adult illiteracy by one half of current figure; Health:

(iii)      Universal access to primary health care sanitation;

(iv)      The immunization of all children;

(v)       Reduction of maternal mortality by one half;

(vi)      Eliminating completely severe malnutrition and reducing by one half moderate malnutrition. Population:

(vii)     Access to family planning by all willing couples.

According to the NHDR (1998) meaningful education is the most potent instrument for alleviating and eventually abolishing poverty. It is education that is expected to provide opportunities for the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Empirical evidence in Nigeria shows that there is a steady decrease in percentage of the poor as the level of education; particularly that of the head of the household, increases.

There is overwhelming evidence that the development of human resources is one of the keys to reducing poverty. Learning from the experience of others, the remarkable growth of the economics of the so-called Tigers of the Pacific Rim was largely due to the heavy investments made by these countries in developing human resources. All of them are 100 per cent literate as against a literacy level of only 55.6 per cent in Nigeria. Nigeria inspite of her abundant natural resources has simply not made adequate investments in the development of its human resources. The World Bank Report for 1996 shows per capita expenditure in Nigeria on health and education is one of the lowest in Africa. Ghana spends twice as much as Nigeria while Togo and Benin spend three times as much as Nigeria on education and health. According to NHDR (1998) education and health hold the key to eliminating poverty. Basic education should therefore become one of the major strategies for poverty reduction in Nigeria. It is obvious that only those who are educated that can hope to find reasonable employment that will lift them above the threshold of poverty. According to the NHDR (1998) meaningful education is the most potent instrument for alleviating and eventually abolishing poverty. It is education that is expected to provide opportunities for the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Empirical evidence in Nigeria shows that there is a steady decreases in percentage of the poor as the level of education particularly that of the head of the household increase. Uneducated people usually end up with poorly paid jobs and as such they always remain poor. In order to reduce poverty, Nigeria has to invest more in the development of her human resources.

In agreement with the World Bank suggestions, there should be a clear commitment to providing the poor with access to social services through the development of a good infrastructure. Safe water, electricity, and good roads are areas of infrastructure, which need massive investment particularly, in the rural areas. With more stable supply of electricity, urban artisans can more than double their incomes. A substantial income is lost through erratic power supplies by artisans in Nigeria. (CDHR, 1996).

In the rural areas too, the provision of good infrastructure will also assist farmers to increase their income rapidly. The existing poor infrastructure, particularly in the rural areas prevents farmers from producing more food and cash crops, as such an increase may not be easily evacuated to the towns and cities where .they are needed. Again, having good infrastructural facilities in place will also encourage the growth of cottage industries in the rural areas where labour is cheaper than in the cities. One of the strategies for reducing poverty is to provide the poor with adequate social infrastructures.

Although not much success has been recorded in agriculture, agricultural development remains the best means of reducing the incidence of poverty in Nigeria. In order to succeed in poverty reduction, development of agriculture must be focused on the rural dwellers. There is the imperative need to invest in agricultural technology so as to boost agricultural productivity. Affordable tools must be fabricated locally while the more expensive tools can be assembled locally with a view to reducing costs. Storage facilities should also be produced to take care of excess farm products. This again will help to stabilize the incomes of those engaged in farming as income fluctuations itself is a source of poverty. If poverty is to be reduced, Nigerian agriculture must shift from the traditional hoe and cutlass agriculture, which keeps people at the subsistence level to, mechanised agriculture.

There are the social dimensions of poverty. In order to reduce poverty, the government put in place some measures that we have in mind includes – old age schemes, unemployment allowance, and welfare schemes for the widows, orphans, the sick and the disabled people. Furthermore, a strict population policy limiting or stipulating family size must be put in place. The strategies should include the following: (1) Limiting age at marriage.

• Taxation – imposing heavy tax burden on large families so as to deter people from having large families.
• Limiting the number of children per couple to a maximum of four.
• Marrying multiple wives to be discouraged.

Even though some of the issues raised above seems controversial, this notwithstanding, they are quite in order as they have been adopted and implemented by both China and India with a remarkable degree of success. And as such, Nigeria can borrow so much from the experiences of both nations, which is in line with the convergence thesis. Again, the average Nigerian woman, as indicated by the UN profile on Human Resources, has six children. If recent population trends continue according to projections by the UN, by the year 2015, the population will double the natural growth rate thus making the challenge of poverty reduction programmes a daunting or Herculean task.

It is envisaged that all these strategies will help to reduce the incidence of large family sizes and thus help to reduce poverty since it is understood that the burden of parenthood also increases the level of poverty.

Finally, there is the ideological dimension of the problem. It has been argued that the incidence of poverty is high in Nigeria because it is a capitalist nation. It is posited that a change in the political ideology from capitalism to socialism will help to reduce the incidence of poverty. This is because Socialism ensures the establishment of a just and egalitarian society as all the productive assets and resources will have been nationalized and the proceeds distributed on the basis of need or want but not on their ability to pay. According to Riordan (1984) the poor in socialist countries were better off that the poor in the capitalist nations. To the capitalists this position may not be acceptable but to the workers it is very desirable as socialism creates better opportunities for the poor. This notwithstanding, our thesis is that any worthwhile change in the status quo must have an ideological position or underpinnings.

At this juncture, it is pertinent to raise issue as to the problem that will be encountered in the implementation of some of the strategies proposed. As a matter of fact, the success or the practicability of the strategies proposed depends on a number of factors.  For instance, the ability of government to enhance sustained economic growth, expand existing industries, tackle the problem of unemployment, recapitalize the existing banks and finance houses, develop the human resources vis a vis basic education and health, provide social infrastructures and invest in agricultural development depends largely on the following factors. These are:

• The availability of the funds or capital needed to execute these policies,
• Adequate or proper monitoring, implementation and critical evaluation of these policies of action,
• Adequate citizenship participation, identification and cooperation with government most especially those dealing with individual initiative e.g. Family size and age at marriage
• The ability of government to address the problem of official/bureaucratic corruption, mismanagement and poor accountability.

The failure of some of our previous policies and programmes on poverty alleviation has been attributed to official corruption. However, the fundamental issues from all indications is that of inadequate funding and lack of commitment on the part of those entrusted with governance.

CONCLUSION

Poverty has resulted in individuals not having choices and opportunities to get fundamental needs for survival including food, shelter and clothing. Subsequently, they are unable to participate effectively in society towards development of a strong community as they lack these basic capacities. It leads to insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. The main causes of poverty are corruption; education; political instability and wars; natural and geographical characteristics; and ineffective local governance and government policies. The fact that poverty is quite multi-dimensional and varies from place to place and from society to society, it is important to identify the causes of poverty. The most appropriate solving method, perhaps, is to examine the dimensions highlighted by the poor from their respective locations. The root causes of poverty faced by the community need to be identified, so that the efforts to eradicate poverty will give sustainable progress.

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