POVERTY-EDUCATION NEXUS: IMPLICATIONS FOR PROMOTION OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN NIGERIA

The achievement of women empowerment is measured by the extent to which women and girls are able to act freely, exercise their rights, and fulfill their potential as full and equal members of society (USAID, 2012). Out of all the indices of human capital development, education is crucial and seems capable of propelling other indices such as training, employment, health and services. However the impact of poverty in accessing and utilizing education cannot be overemphasized. Poverty-education nexus impacts promotion of women development both at the family and societal levels. Education is a process of imparting knowledge, skills and information and represents an integral of personal upbringing. It is force of acquiring understanding and redesigning human environment with the view of achieving and sustaining a better quality of life. It is therefore an infrastructure provided for citizenry in order to enable them to acquire, sharpens their skills and earn better living conditions. However, as important as this ingredient is, women are still backward in education in virtually all developing countries. In Nigeria, majority of women lack access to education and are often restricted in terms of other rights including resources control (CBN, 2012; NBS, 2010; Uzoma, 2013). The study therefore attempted to confirm (or otherwise) the roles of education in women empowerment in Nigeria and proffer plausible measures to spur women education as well as national development as a whole. The study examined impact of poverty-education nexus in the promotion of women development in Nigeria. It specifically highlighted the issues and challenges in women empowerment and brought into fore the benefits inherent in educating women. The study adopted qualitative research approach and made extensive use of empirical but secondary information and statistics to justify most of the claims in the work. Information obtained were analysed following thematic content analysis intermediated by author’s reasoning and experience. Plagiarism test conducted revealed up to 9.7% level of plagiarism confirming the work as original. Information obtained through secondary data search were analyzed by interpretations of social meaning of observation through mapping and aggregation into logical segments. In addition, other basic tools of descriptive statistics and pictorial information such as graph/charts and frequencies distribution where applicable. The study shows that the sub-Saharan Africa adult literacy rate for women is the lowest (45.7%) compared with higher rates (of 98.9%) for other regions of the world. The study revealed that women are disadvantageously placed in terms of access to education and that disparity in male-female literacy may continue beyond 2015. The study posits that it is exigent to continuing raising awareness that women education and women’s empowerment is not only important for social development but is indispensable for economic development. The authors therefore believed that the barriers that impede women development would require government’s commitments such that acquired education can be transformed to meaningful economic activities through job opportunities