The Impact of Poverty on Sustainable Economic Development in Nigeria

Abstract

Poverty alleviation is today a principal yardstick for measuring sustainable development. The soundness of economic policy and quality of a countries institution ultimately can be seen by the extent to which they contribute to the alleviation of poverty and sustainable development. The impact of poverty on sustainable development in Nigeria is devastating. The inability of the poor people to harness the resources that will improve their living conditions has helped to dismantled their hopes of life. The unsustainable use of natural resources inevitably cause poverty. To solve the problem, policy must be focused on environmental policies and not poverty alleviation policies. In addition, environmental degradation can be caused by poverty. Hence, to resolve the problem, the first objective is to identify if it is indigenous poverty, then policies must be focused on environmental policies. On the other hand, if it is exogenous poverty, then poverty alleviation policies need to be formulated and implemented. Furthermore, for poverty to be reduced to a bare minimum the economy must be diversified to remove the overdependence on oil revenue. The greater Nigerian population practice agriculture, which in spite of its neglect, feeds the nation and contributes significantly to the nations GDP. Therefore, the necessary condition for the upliftment of the living standard of the masses of Nigerians is improvement in agricultural production