Multidimensional Poverty Incidence in Nigeria: Empirical Insight from Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire (CWIQ) Survey

Abstract

This study carried out an analysis of multidimensional poverty incidence in Nigeria using the Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire (CWIQ) Data, a non-monetary welfare indicator survey. A composed sample of 77,400 (seventy-seven thousand, four hundred) housing units drawn from the 36 States and Federal Capital Territory-FCT was used for the study. Five non-monetary welfare indicators were constructed for the study- Housing; Education; Energy; Health; and Land access. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Adapted-Foster Greer and Thorbecke, were used to analyze the data. The PCA was used to derive the non-monetary poverty line. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin model adequacy value of 0.75 was obtained in each of the poverty groupings. The study revealed that poverty in Nigeria has no geographical frontier, with all the geo-political zones/groupings recording high incidence of multidimensional poverty. Among the recommendations made were: Government should target specific regions or states based on the poverty attributes they are most deprived; Government should incorporate other poverty attributes in their poverty eradication programmes instead of focusing primarily on moving people out of certain income poverty level.

Keywords: Nigeria, Multidimensional Poverty, Incidence, Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire