Social Policies and Poverty Reduction in Africa: Nigeria in focus

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue IX, September 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Social Policies and Poverty Reduction in Africa: Nigeria in focus

Christiana U. Ekong¹, Uduak Isaac Effiong², Uduak M. Ekong, PhD^3
1LeMeridienIbom Hotels and Golf Resort, Uyo, Nigeria
²Ministry of Economic Development Akwa Ibom State
³Department of Economics Faculty of Social Sciences University of Uyo, Uyo

Abstract: One of the daunting challenges in the development of human capital and the general wellbeing of the people is the rising incidence of poverty across regions. Many policies and strategies have been adopted to address this challenge. In this paper, we explore all such social policies adopted to tackle poverty incidence in Africa using Nigeria as a focal point. In particular, we reviews nine social policies employed by the Nigerian government to reduced poverty in Nigeria and accesses their outcomes. Our outcome expresses mixed feelings on the performance of social policies in poverty reduction in Nigeria. Specifically, while implementers advocate for successes of the programmes, the beneficiaries pointed to non-effectiveness of the programmes due to noticeable challenges peculiar to the sub region. However, the African sub-region, including Nigeria, benefits fully from conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes of social policies across poverty line and multi-dimensions in dipping poverty across all strata of the African society. We recommend strengthening social policy integration among competing policies as an onion in ensuring social policies-poverty reduction synthesis in the African region.

Key Words: Social Policies, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation Programmes, Rural Poor, Nigeria

I. INTRODUCTION

Poverty constitutes one of the most social development challenges the world ever faced. It is only now followed by terrorism and insurgency more or less to trigger poverty the more. Poverty in its most general sense is the lack of necessities. Basic food, shelter, medical care, and safety are generally thought necessary based on shared values of humandignity (Bradshaw, 2006). However, what is a necessity to one person is not uniformly a necessity to others. Needs may be relative to what is possible and are based on social definition and past experience (Sen, 1999). Valentine (1968) says that “the essence of poverty is inequality. In slightly different words, the basic meaning of poverty is relative deprivation.” A social (relative) definition of poverty allows community flexibility in addressing pressing local concerns, while objective definitions allow tracking progress and comparing one area to another.
In March 2013, Africa was identified as the world’s poorest inhabited continent. However, the World Bank also expects that most African countries will reach “middle income” status (defined as at least US$1,000 per person a year) by 2025 if current growth rates continue. This should not be surprise,

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