Awareness, Perception and Attitude towards Income-Generating Activities among Low-income Women in Nigeria (TET Fund funded)

This study examined the tendencies of Nigeria’s low-income women towards income generation activities (IGA) in the face of the feminisation of poverty globally. The gender poverty gap has widened, with more women, particularly those aged 25-34, who are in their prime working years, falling into brackets of insufficiency, comparatively. A participatory approach underpinned the study, built on the Gender Equality Theory. A quantitative method was employed, using a multi-stage sampling technique to survey 2,954 respondents among low-income women across three (3) States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Each selected State was highly populated, multicultural and multi-ethnic to obtain a holistic perspective of the target population, generally defined as those who averaged sixty thousand Naira total monthly income. Findings show that low-income women, mostly youthful, became aware of IGAs through friends, parents and relatives and that they were involved in IGAs to be less dependent on their spouses, support their husbands financially, and tended to wholly finance the family after spouses’ retrenchment, retirement or eternal departure. The study conclusively identifies the development and sustainability of IGAs undertaken by women as being hampered by credit access limitations, paucity of training, below-par technical support, and absent IGA hubs. The study recommends, among others, that agencies and ministries should offer substantial support to IGA-participating low-income women through extension services, business hub creation, and business training programmes; these would enhance their finances to power their households and create wealth.