Human capital development and poverty reduction in Nigeria

This study was informed by the rising poverty level in nigeria. Despite nigeria’s plentiful agricultural resources and oil wealth, poverty is widespread in the country and has increased since the late 1990s, with some 70 per cent of nigerians living on less than us$1.25 a day. Arguably, it has been asserted that government investment in education, agriculture, skill acquisition and small and medium enterprises measured through financial intermediation can help in the reduction of poverty as observed in other developed economies of the world. It is against this backdrop that this study tries to examine the effect of human capital development on poverty reduction in nigeria by modelling the effect of government investment in education, agriculture, and skill acquisition on poverty reduction in nigeria using an econometric regression model of the ordinary least squares (ols). Findings revealed that human capital development, government expenditures on agriculture, education and skill acquisition are statistically significant in reducing poverty in nigeria. The study therefore recommends, among others, that the government should prioritize its investment in education, agriculture and skill acquisition and to also make sure that its investment in these areas is structurally balanced, supervised and focused because they have been identified to significantly influence poverty reduction in nigeria.