Curtailing Tendencies that Engender Poverty and Financial Wastage Through Effective Consumer Education Among Nigerian Women

Poverty remains one of the greatest banes of development in most African countries which include Nigeria. Despite the dwindling resources available at the disposal of many families, women who constitute the mainstay of the family set up still engage in consumer behavioural patterns that drain those meager resources of the family which further plunges the families into financial difficulties and poverty. This study examines the extent to which women across social strata in Nigeria apply the principles of consumer education in their choices of clothing materials. The study is based on the popular vogue of Aso-ebi (uniform attire) trending in the Nigerian social circles today. 1,152 were sampled. The validity of the Instrument was ensured and reliability was tested using Cronbach’s, alpha, which yielded 0.86. Mean, Standard deviation, Pearson’s correlation, Coefficient and fisher’s Z were used at a significant level of 0.05. Which yielded a positive relationship between consumers, personal motivations and social influences as against consumer education principles. That is, social motivational factors influence the choice of Aso – ebi, and their clothing choices rather than financial prudence indicating that most Nigerian women do not apply consumer education principles in their choices of clothing because of the pressure of social vogue which has severe implications on their financial resources. If the family is poor the Nation will remain in poverty. It is therefore recommended that concerted efforts should be made to encourage women to adopt principles that can avoid waste and thereby conserve the family resources.