Extent and Effectiveness of Market Women Participation in Poverty Alleviation Programmes in Selected Local Government Areas of Kwara State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The study described the socio-economic characteristics of women marketers, determine the extent and effectiveness of market women participation in poverty alleviation programmes and constraints women faced in participating in poverty alleviation programmes in Kwara State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to collect data from 96 market women with the aid of structured questionnaire, which were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results of the socio-economic characteristics revealed that the mean age, household size and marketing experience of the women were 40 years, 5 people and 5.5years. Majority (67.7%) of the market women had tertiary education with mean of 14 years spent in schooling with mean of 3 years of cooperative membership. Result of the extent of participation in the programmes revealed that Life Above Poverty Organisation, Self-reliance Economic Advancement Programme and National Health Insurance Scheme had high level of participation among the poverty alleviation programmes. Result of the effectiveness of participation in the programmes revealed that National Health Insurance Scheme was the most effective programme. The severe constraints faced by the market women in participating in the programme were problem of corruption in executing some of the poverty alleviation programmes (2.79), inadequate awareness of the poverty alleviation programme (2.47). The study however recommended that there is need for market women to be sensitize for effective participation about poverty alleviation programmes by the Government. There is need for Government and NGOs to constitute Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) committee that will oversee the implementation of programmes according to the blue-print.