CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1BACKGROUND AND NEED OF THE STUDY
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Poverty Reduction are two concepts that are familiar to us in Nigeria.
Poverty reduction has been the concern of every responsive and responsible government at every level. Despite the increase in the total amount of funds available in Nigeria since independence in 1960s, its positive impact has not been felt by the people especially the rural dwellers.
The concept of poverty and material deprivation is a critical one in contemporary social discussions. Social science’s literature is replete with attempt by the Economist and other social scientists to conceptualized the phenomenon. Poverty has economic, social and political ramifications. The poor are mentally deprived, socially alienated and politically excommunicated. Basically, poverty has been conceptualize in the following ways:
a.           Lack of access to basic needs/goods and
b.          Lack of or impaired access to productive resources.
Poverty as lack of access to basic needs/goods is essentially economic or consumption oriented. Thus, the poor are conceived as those individuals or households in a particular society, incapable of purchasing a specified basket of basic goods and services. Basic goods as used here include; food, shelter, water, health care, access to productive resources including education, working skills and tools, political and civil rights to participate in decisions concerning socio-economic conditions. (Ajakaiye and Adeyeye 2001 in Gbosi, 2004).
The poverty profile in Nigeria showed that the incidence of poverty increased from 28.1% in 1980 to 43.6% in 1985 but declined to 42.7% in 1992 and rose again to 66.5% in 1996 (FOS 1999). From 1980 – 1990, the population of poor Nigerians increased four folds in absolute terms. The percentage of the core poor increased from 62% in 1980 to 93% in 1996 whereas the moderately poor rose from 28.9% in 1992 to 36.3% in 1996 (FOS, 1999). The analysis of the depth and severity of poverty in Nigeria showed that rural areas were the most affected. Several reasons accounted for the situation Viz;
a.           The large concentration of the populace in the rural areas.
b.          Many years of neglect of the rural areas in terms of infrastructural development and lack of information on the way government is being run.
The CBN/World Bank study on poverty Assessment and Alleviation in Nigeria (1999) attested to the fact that the living and environmental conditions of those living in the rural areas have worsened. Urban poverty is also on the increase.
The concern over increasing poverty levels in Nigeria and the need for its eradication as a means of improving the standard of living of the people has led to the conceptualization and implementation of various targeted poverty eradication and alleviation programmes.
The Government of Nigeria over the years, in a bid to reduce poverty initiated the following programmes;
a.           The Directorate of food, Roads and Rural infrastructure (D.F.F.R.I)
b.          The National Directorate of Employment (NDE)
c.           The establishment of People Bank of Nigeria in 1989
d.          The Better Life Programme (BLP)
e.           The Family Support Programme (FSP)
f.            National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA)
g.           The Nomadic and Adult Education Programme established in 1986.
h.          Agricultural Development Programme (A.D.P).