Impact Assessment of Empowerment Programmes and Inclusiveness on Human Development Index in Selected Communities of Kogi Central, Nigeria

The adaption of free-fall in the national petroleum products policy has led to the current economic crisis and consequential negative effect on the livelihoods of many citizens. But the incubation and propagation of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through the various empowerment programmes holds a lot of potential for bailing out Nigerian from the incessant economic crisis. Various international and national government agencies, and NGOs have role out community empowerments that have engulf billions of naira over the years that their impact were never evaluated. This research therefore aim at evaluating the impact of four major empowerment programmes on the socioeconomic life of six selected benefiting communities in Okehi and Adavi local government areas of Kogi State Nigeria using the multidimensional poverty index (MPI) and Goal Achievement Matrix (GAM). The result reveals that the multidimensional poverty indices {MPI) in headcount ratio ‘H’ in the four communities across the central senatorial district gave a ratio of 0.40. While the computed poverty intensity which is the average deprivation score is 0.35, which implies that the average multi-dimensionally poor person is deprived in 35% of the weighted indicators. The study also reveals that while Kogi-Cares has the highest positive community impact and followed by APEAL foundation, Action-Aid and HAYAT have the poorest local impact across the area. It is therefore recommended that empowerment outreaches that are more of economic leakages to the donor bodies at national and international levels should be scraped while enhancing sustainable ones.