Poverty In Nigeria and Government Efforts Towards Its Alleviation

Nigeria, the most populous country not only in Sub-Saharan Africa but the continent as a whole, is highly endowed with natural resources, and being the 6th largest crude oil exporter in the world, its people are paradoxically wallowing in excruciating poverty. Historically, the trend of poverty in...

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Main Authors: Kura, Shuaibu Shehu, Viswanathan, K. Kuperan, Ishak, Suhaimi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: UUM Press 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/30103/1/JES%2001%2001%202019%2044-54.pdf
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author Kura, Shuaibu Shehu
Viswanathan, K. Kuperan
Ishak, Suhaimi
author_facet Kura, Shuaibu Shehu
Viswanathan, K. Kuperan
Ishak, Suhaimi
author_sort Kura, Shuaibu Shehu
collection UUM
description Nigeria, the most populous country not only in Sub-Saharan Africa but the continent as a whole, is highly endowed with natural resources, and being the 6th largest crude oil exporter in the world, its people are paradoxically wallowing in excruciating poverty. Historically, the trend of poverty in Nigeria is that of the upsurge. In 1980, for instance, the number of people living in poverty increased from 27% to 46% in 1985 and from 55% in 2004 to 61% in 2010 and 64% in 2013 (World Bank, 2013). Consequently, the need arises for concerted effort to be made to tackle the menace of poverty in the country. Thus, several poverty alleviation programmes were undertaken by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) as an indication of its commitment to alleviate poverty in the country. Reviewing relevant literature, we evaluate poverty alleviation programmes in this paper. We conclude that despite enormous resources allocated to poverty elevation programmes, poverty levels did not decline but has increased over time. This failure is explained by corruption, overlapping functions and rivalry among executing agencies, as well as political interference. Recommendations for improving poverty alleviation programmes and making them more effective are provided in this paper.
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spelling uum-301032023-11-30T08:23:06Z https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/30103/ Poverty In Nigeria and Government Efforts Towards Its Alleviation Kura, Shuaibu Shehu Viswanathan, K. Kuperan Ishak, Suhaimi HM Sociology Nigeria, the most populous country not only in Sub-Saharan Africa but the continent as a whole, is highly endowed with natural resources, and being the 6th largest crude oil exporter in the world, its people are paradoxically wallowing in excruciating poverty. Historically, the trend of poverty in Nigeria is that of the upsurge. In 1980, for instance, the number of people living in poverty increased from 27% to 46% in 1985 and from 55% in 2004 to 61% in 2010 and 64% in 2013 (World Bank, 2013). Consequently, the need arises for concerted effort to be made to tackle the menace of poverty in the country. Thus, several poverty alleviation programmes were undertaken by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) as an indication of its commitment to alleviate poverty in the country. Reviewing relevant literature, we evaluate poverty alleviation programmes in this paper. We conclude that despite enormous resources allocated to poverty elevation programmes, poverty levels did not decline but has increased over time. This failure is explained by corruption, overlapping functions and rivalry among executing agencies, as well as political interference. Recommendations for improving poverty alleviation programmes and making them more effective are provided in this paper. UUM Press 2019 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc4_by https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/30103/1/JES%2001%2001%202019%2044-54.pdf Kura, Shuaibu Shehu and Viswanathan, K. Kuperan and Ishak, Suhaimi (2019) Poverty In Nigeria and Government Efforts Towards Its Alleviation. Journal of Economics and Sustainability (JES), 1 (1). pp. 44-54. ISSN 2637-1294 https://e-journal.uum.edu.my/index.php/jes/article/view/12536
spellingShingle HM Sociology
Kura, Shuaibu Shehu
Viswanathan, K. Kuperan
Ishak, Suhaimi
Poverty In Nigeria and Government Efforts Towards Its Alleviation
title Poverty In Nigeria and Government Efforts Towards Its Alleviation
title_full Poverty In Nigeria and Government Efforts Towards Its Alleviation
title_fullStr Poverty In Nigeria and Government Efforts Towards Its Alleviation
title_full_unstemmed Poverty In Nigeria and Government Efforts Towards Its Alleviation
title_short Poverty In Nigeria and Government Efforts Towards Its Alleviation
title_sort poverty in nigeria and government efforts towards its alleviation
topic HM Sociology
url https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/30103/1/JES%2001%2001%202019%2044-54.pdf
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