Evaluation of Poverty Reduction in Nigeria towards Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Abstract

Nigeria is one of the largest oil and gas producers in the world. These minerals and other resources have put Nigeria in a position of a wealthy nation. Yet Nigeria is one of the poorest nations in the world today because majority of the population (69.1%) still live in abject poverty (UN, 2011)[1]. Although several ideas, plans, programmes and strategies have been domestically generated to address the scourge; but the persistence of poverty in large scale shows ineffective in government interventionist measures. In an attempt to deal with the problem of poverty, Nigeria as a member of the United Nations signed on to the implementation of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which also seeks to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty by 2015. This led to the formulation of the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS). NEEDS as a policy is targeted at eradicating poverty and bringing about sustainable development which is done through the establishment of agencies like National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP). However, the current progress towards the attainment of the goals is approximately at a snail´s pace and quixotic. The paper therefore sets to evaluate the poverty reduction in Nigeria via the instrumentality of the MDGs.