Assessment of the Impact of National Poverty Eradication Programme on Rural Households in Kano State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed the impacts of National poverty Eradication programme (NAPEP) on rural households in Kano state, Nigeria. Cross sectional data was utilized for the study. Questionnaires were administered to 720 respondents selected based on multi stage sampling techniques on 12 selected rural local government areas. Descriptive statistics, logit model and ordered logit were employed to ascertain the impact of poverty alleviation on rural households in Kano state. The results indicate that: with regards to socioeconomic characteristics, majority of the respondents were male with most of them being married with mean age of 38.25years, with significant number of them formally educated to atleast secondary school level of education. Variables such as gender, age, level of education, occupation and dependents were important determinants of the programme awareness. Also, the variables age, level of education, unemployment and NAPEP awareness were important in determining the impact of the programme in the study area. The results also, show that politics, implementation, sectorial biased, and funding were the problems that hindered the success of the programme in Kano state. The results also indicate that provision of education; soft loans, social amenities and subsidy to agricultural inputs are important tools for fighting poverty in the study area. The study concludes that NAPEP has not impacted very much on rural poverty in the study area. The study therefore recommends among others that more awareness of the programme, sensitized politics should be improved in implementation of the programme
and government should increase investment in education in order to curtail the menace of poverty in the study area and the country at large.