Socio-economic determinants of multidimensional child poverty in Nigeria

Abstract

One of the global community's sustainable
development objectives is to end all types of
poverty. Although there has been significant
improvement made on a global scale, it is still
uneven and unacceptably high in sub-
Saharan Africa, especially particularly
Nigeria. Health, educational, and living
conditions are widely disadvantaged
throughout the nation's states and
geopolitical regions. Consequently, this study
evaluates the socio-economic determinants of
multidimensional child poverty in Nigeria.
For the theoretical connection between
unidirectional and multidimensional poverty,
the study mostly relied on Sen's capacity
approach. To determine the effect of
socioeconomic variables on multidimensional
poverty, a Probit model was computed.
Additionally, the Probit model's marginal
effect was simulated to ascertain the
likelihood of multidimensional child poverty According to the study, the largest
determinants of the likelihood of
multidimensional child poverty in Nigeria are
household per capita consumer spending, per
capita family income, household size, child's
age, and the gender of the household head. In
particular, the marginal effect model shows
that increasing per capita consumption
expenditure by 1% will result in a reduction
in the likelihood of multidimensional child
poverty of 0.872, while increasing per capita
income by 1% will result in a reduction in the
likelihood of multidimensional child poverty
of 0.047. Once more, being in an urban region
lowers the likelihood of multidimensional
child poverty by around 0.068. While families
with a male head have a multidimensional
child chance that is -0.230 lower than those
with a female head. However, efficient family
planning initiatives that encourage women to
have fewer children will significantly improve
the situation for children living in poverty.