Social Protection in Nigeria: An X-Ray of Social Investment Programme as a Panacea for Poverty Alleviation in Nigeria

Abstract

Poverty and vulnerability remain endemic in most African countries including Nigeria as most citizens are unable to meet physiological needs. Literarily, 46.4% of the population are living below the poverty level while poor children, pregnant women, youths and elderly are most vulnerable groups struggling to live a life of dignity. Government at various levels, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) and development partners implement different lopsided social protection interventions to assist people to meet their basic needs based on their different interests and without a basic target for the interventions. Previous research reported the situation of social protection in Nigeria based on existing programmes without a strategy system. This study examined the impact of Social Investment Programme on poverty reduction among Kwara State beneficiaries of Job creation and Youth Employment (N-Power) programme. Krejcie and Morgan's Table was adopted for sample determination; Linear regression with Correlation Coefficient table was used to test the study's hypotheses. The Estimated Coefficients of 0.541 statistically established that Job creation and Youth Employment has weak significant impact on poverty reduction among youth in Kwara State while Coefficients of 0.907 statistically proved that Job creation and Youth Employment has significant effects on youth empowerment among youth in Kwara State. The study practically shows that large numbers of the beneficiaries used the stipends to cater for their daily square meal in contrary to poverty alleviation it expected to address. The study recommended that the targeting mechanism needs to be adhered to in other to address the objectives of reducing poverty through social protection initiatives while the challenge of population growth also needs to be addressed for Social Protection to have strong impact on poverty reduction.