CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS OF POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES

CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS OF POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES (ECONOMICS PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)

ABSTRACT

There has been a high and growing incidence of poverty in Lagos State in the last two decades. Overtime, what can be discerned in the various approaches to poverty alleviation in Lagos State is that the State is determined largely by making a choice between growth promoting policies and poverty focused strategies. The reality however is that, the two approaches are not after all mutually exclusive. They are complementary to the extent that the former serve only as a long term the latter constitute an immediate and direct shot at the poverty itself.

This research work is designed to examine clearly the challenges and prospects of poverty alleviation programmes in Lagos State. Ikeja local Government was the case study. The various definitions and categories of poverty, causes of poverty, profile of poverty in Nigeria and programmes in Nigeria among others were discussed.

Moreover, through the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software, all data collected through the questionnaire were analyzed; and, Chi-Square was used to test for the entire three hypotheses. At the end of the analysis of findings, policy recommendations were made towards effectiveness in State Government effort in alleviating poverty in Lagos State.

CHAPTER ONE

1.1   Introduction

The rising profile of poverty in Nigeria is assuming a worrisome dimension as empiricalstudies had shown. Nigeria, a sub-saharan African country, has at least half of its population living in abject poverty according to Ojo, 2008 Similarly, the publication of the Federal Office of Statistics (1996) reveals that poverty has been massive, pervasive and engulfs a large proportion of the Nigerian society.  Abiola and Olaope 2008) also state that, the scourge of poverty in Nigeria is an incontrovertible fact, which results in hunger, ignorance, malnutrition, disease, unemployment, poor access to credit facilities and low life expectancy.

Nwaobi (2003) in his opinion asserts that Nigeria presents a paradox in which the country is rich, but the people are poor, As noted by Omotola (2008), Nigeria is richly endowed and the country’s wealth potentials manifests in the form of natural, geographical and socio-economic factors, With this condition, Nigeria should rank among the richest countries of the world that should have no business with extreme poverty. However, Ope and Abu (2009) specifically remark that Nigeria has witnessed a monumental increase in the level of poverty. According to them, the poverty stood at 74.2%in the year 2000.

CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS OF POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES (ECONOMICS PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)