N-POWER PROGRAMMES AND POVERTY REDUCTION IN NIGERIA: ENUGU STATE EXPERIENCE

Abstract

The National Bureau of Statistics 2016 reported that about 67 percent of Nigerian population was living below the international poverty line on less than US$1.90 a day. This ugly development necessitated the Federal Government of Nigeria, in the year 2016, to come up with several social intervention policies and programmes. Prominent among these programmes are the N-power programmes, the Conditional Cash Transfer, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme and Home Grown School Feeding Programme. The objective of this study is to assess the implementation of N-Power programmes in Enugu State from 2016 to 2020. The study adopted survey research design. The study was anchored on the Elite theory. Findings include that N-Power programmes were poorly implemented in Enugu State. Furthermore, that N-Power programmes have no significant impact on the reduction of poverty among the youths in Enugu State.  The study recommended among others that federal government should review the structure and strategies of N-power programmes in Nigeria, to make it more implementable and inclusive.