Multidimensional poverty and its determinants: Empirical evidence from Nigeria

Eradicating poverty in all its forms is one of the sustainable development goals of the global community. Although meaningful progress has been achieved globally, it remains uneven and unreasonably high in sub-Saharan Africa and Nigeria in particular. There is widespread deprivations in health, education and living standards across states and geopolitical regions in the country. Hence, this study evaluates the determinants of multidimensional poverty in Nigeria using 2016 cross-sectional data. Multidimensional poverty is proxied with Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). The data were analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey’s test and ordinary least squares (OLS). The ANOVA results show significant variations in multidimensional poverty between geopolitical regions. The Tukey’s test reveals significant variations in multidimensional poverty between regions in the south and the north and most sub-regions in the north. There are no significant variations in multidimensional poverty between sub-regions in the south. After controlling for capital expenditure, the OLS results show that labour force and fertility rate have significant effects on multidimensional poverty with the latter exhibiting positive relationship. The paper concludes that with Nigeria’s large population, an increase in fertility rate will translate to enormous increase in multidimensionally poor population.