The high rate of poverty in Nigeria today is of major concern to policy makers and the general populace. Nigeria’s socio-economic conditions in the last two decades have been characterized by mass poverty (Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, 2013). Nearly 60% of the world’s 1 billion extremely poor people lived in just five countries in 2011: India, Nigeria, China, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (ranked from high to low)(UN, 2015).
In order to deal with the problems mentioned above, especially given Nigeria’s large population with a growth rate of about 3% Â which needs 4.5 million new jobs every year to absorb new entrants to the labour market, the government of Nigeria initiated some measures in the past and some of which are still ongoing. These include the establishment of the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), National Directorate of Employment (NDE), the introduction of Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria Programme (YouWIN!), the Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO), the Youth Employment in Agriculture Programme, the Agricultural Transformation Action Plan, the National Enterprise Development Programme, the University Entrepreneurship Development Programme, as well as the Integrated Youth Development Initiative. However, not withstanding all these initiatives, the problem of unemployment and poverty still persists.