ABSTRACT

Involvement of women in timber marketing in Abia State was investigated. The study sets out to investigate and analyze women involved in timber marketing in Abia state. The influence ofselected respondent’s socioeconomic characteristics on timber marketing was also determined. Data were collected with structured questionnaires. A total of 250 respondents were randomly selected across the following timber markets in Abia State; Umuahia Timber Market, Timber market, Ebem Ohafia, Timber market Arochukwu, Uratta timber market Aba, and Obehie Timber Market Asa. The study revealed that the involvement of respondents in timber marketing was significantly affected by age, marital status, household size and educational level. It was discussed that most of the women involved in the timber marketing business are in their active ages of 15-50 years, frequency of 250 percentage of 100.0 and as such have the strength and vigor to carry out these activities. The marital status of the respondents indicated that 50.4% of the respondents are married, 34.40% were single and 15.20 % were divorced. This complies that most of the women controlled in the timber marketing business are married. The household size ofthe respondents hinted that 37.2% had between 2 to 3 people in their families, 34.4 % had between 1-2 people, while 12% had 3 to 4 people, while 12% had 3 to 4 people in their household. Large household size could imply that more hands would be available but may also imply that a large percentage ofincome would go for assumption. The level of education shows that majority of the women involved in the business have little or no formal education and can barely read or write which implicates that any of them may not be able to keep records of their production activities and income. Furthermore, the study confirmed 'that women involved in timber marketing have positively added to the state economy from the multiple advertisements they carry out on media to popularize their business.