National directorate of employment (NDE) skills acquisition program and poverty reduction in Taraba state

Description

National directorate of employment (NDE) skills acquisition program and poverty reduction in Taraba state.

Abstract

The severe nature of poverty in Nigeria and Taraba in particular has prompted the need for government to tackle this issue through programs or projects aimed at poverty reduction in order to improve the living conditions of the poor. This study seeks to examine the impact of the NDE Skills Acquisition programme on the income and standard of living of the beneficiaries in the study area as well as to ascertain whether the NDE Skills Acquisition programme has significantly reduced poverty among its beneficiaries in the study area. The survey research design was adopted in this study. The sources of data for this research work were primary and secondary sources of data. The major instrument of data collection was the questionnaire. The population of the study was 23, 355 while the sample size of 400 was determined using the‘Taro Yamane’s formula. The data collected were presented in tables using frequency tables and analysed using simple percentages. Findings revealed that NDE Skills Acquisition has not significantly impacted on its beneficiaries in the study area and has not led to a significant reduction in the poverty status of its beneficiaries. This study, therefore, recommends that the NDE Skills Acquisition Programme should re-structure their programmes towards the agricultural and informal sectors of the state, given that majority of its beneficiaries were farmers (34.3%) and traders (37.7%) . In addition, more NDE training centers should be added in every part of the state to broaden the reach of the programmes and afford more indigenes of Taraba state the opportunity of benefiting from the income-generating activities of the NDE.