Determinants of Poverty among Households in the Six Geo-Political Zones of Nigeria: Evidence from General Household Survey Panel 2018/2019

Abstract

This paper investigates the determinants of poverty among households, in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. It utilizes the LSMS General House Holds Survey Panel 2018/2019 conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in collaboration with Federal ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and World Bank. For a sample of 5000 households a robust OLS regressions was estimated. The descriptive results revealed that, North-West zone recorded the highest incidence of poverty while South-South zone appeared to have the lowest incidence of poverty. However, North-East recorded the highest depth and severity of poverty. The inferential results of robust OLS regressions indicate that household size has a significant nonlinear positive influence on household welfare, while age of the household head, land and house ownership have significant positive influence on household welfare. Furthermore educational attainment of the household head has the most significant positive influence on household welfare, suggesting that, educational level of a household head improves household welfare and reduces the incidence of poverty in all the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. It is therefore suggested that, government at all levels (federal, state and local government) should intensify efforts in establishing sound and workable policies geared towards enhancing human capital development through giving free and compulsory education, especially basic and high level education across all the zones of Nigeria.