Files
Abstract
Poverty has been intractable because policies and programmes are based on static
poverty analysis in Nigeria. There is the need for a forward looking approach
(vulnerability to poverty) to be adopted in poverty analysis, hence this study. This
study investigated the vulnerability to poverty across geopolitical zones in rural
Nigeria, using the 2004 NLSS data. The result of the 3-Stage Feasible Generalized
Least Squares showed that at the standard vulnerability threshold of 0.5, vulnerability
to poverty (VP) was highest in North-east Nigeria (71.0%) and lowest in the Southwest
(28.8%). Male headed households (59.8%) were more vulnerable to poverty than
their female counterpart (43.9%). The consumption variance index is 0.0326, 0.0481
and 0.0373 in South-south, South-east and South-west which is higher than the
national average of 0.0284. While the mean consumption index is 0.0195, 0.0228 and
0.0119 in the North-east, North-west and North-central lower than the national average
of 0.0585. Rural households’ vulnerability to poverty varied across the geopolitical
zones in Nigeria with the northern part been worse off.