ABSTRACT

This study focused on Impact of poverty on the lifestyle of Nigerians using Nsukka and Enugu north local government areas of Enugu state as a study. The specific objectives of the study are; to determine the extent to which poverty affect the lifestyle of Nigerians, to ascertain the various causes of poverty in Nsukka and Enugu North L.G.A of Enugu State and to examine the effects of poverty management strategies on the citizens of Nsukka and Enugu North  LGAS. The study adopted Survey Design. Data were collected using primary and secondary sources. A sample size of 798 was used and this was derived from the population of towns in the LGAs using Taro Yamane formula. The study found out that poverty level in the LGAs contradicts with the country’s wealth. This is because of income inequality in the area, non-provisions of social amenities. Poor income earning and unemployment was also traced to be the causes of poverty in the area as findings showed low standard of education, unemployment rate is very high and several poverty reduction programmes adopted to reduce poverty yielded no significance result as the respondent indicates high corruption, poor management and lack of commitment to the work among the poverty alleviation scheme. The study discovered that the strategies that can be used to manage poverty in the LGAS lies in the national political commitment; good governance and a desire by the leadership to serve Nigeria people. Finally, it was recommended that to make the poor benefit from country’s wealth , there is need to refocus public policy on a number of key priorities, provision of social amenities, creation of employment, investment in education and restricting and redesigning of poverty alleviation to centre on basic needs.