An Assessment of the Determinants of Rural Poverty in Southern Nigeria

Government of Nigeria has put in place so many laudable policy measures and strategies to improve the socio-economic empowerment indices so as to enhance the standard living of people in the rural sector. Despite these government efforts, Nigeria is still facing the challenges of poverty most especially in the rural settings. The study set out to examine the determinants of rural poverty in the southern Nigeria particularly the southwest and southsouth. The study made use of multi-stage technique in the collection of data using 2019 Nigeria living standard survey. The study also employed probit regression model to measure the determinants of rural poverty in the southwest and south-south of Nigeria. The regression results revealed that gender, age, household size, the sex of the household head, religion, marital status, occupation, and employment sectors are the determinants of poverty in Nigeria. Among these parameters, household size have positive effect on poverty in both southwest and south-south which implies that it has significant effect on rural poverty in Nigeria, whereas others parameters have negative effects. Therefore, the study concludes that household size is one of the causes of poverty, since it is positively associated with poverty, implying that a larger family increases the likelihood of being poor. In line with the findings, the study therefore, recommends that the Nigerian government should design and implement policies that encourage family planning strategies and birth control measures as population control is crucial to achieving poverty reduction.