This study estimates and analyzes the incidence and determinants of energy poverty in Nigeria based on a simple multidimensional energy poverty index that it constructed. It also highlights the implications of energy poverty for sustainable development in Nigeria. The headcount ratio and the logistic regression technique are used. The study utilizes the Nigeria Living Standard Survey data set of 2004, obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics. The estimates show that energy poverty is pervasive in the country; it afflicts over 75 per cent of the population. The determinants of energy poverty in Nigeria include household size; educational level, gender and age of household head; general poverty; region of residence; and proportion of working members in the household. Efforts should be made to adequately tackle the problem of energy poverty in Nigeria. This is a major way to put the country on the path to rapid and sustainable development.

This study investigated the determinants of poverty among farming households in Nigeria. The study adopted the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) measure of poverty and employed the logit regression model to estimate the effect of the socio-economic variables on poverty among farming households. The results show high incidence of poverty among farming households. Age, size of household, income, and number of farms are major determinants of poverty among farming households. Further, living in the North-east, North-central, South-east, and South-south geo-political zones relative to North-west are major determinants of poverty. The results of marginal effects analysis reinforces the conclusion that the above factors are major determinants of poverty among farming households. Investing in the agricultural sector to reduce poverty should be a matter of priority. Measures aimed at improving both the quality of land and access to inputs could enhance the productivity of farmers. Though poverty is predominant in all the zones, a flexible approach to address the specific challenges of each zone rather than generalized measures could accelerate the pace of sustainable poverty reduction in the rural areas in particular and the country in general.

Economists have in recent times recognized that a household's sense of well-being depends not just on its average income or expenditure but on the risk it faces as well. Vulnerability is thus a very crucial issue in welfare analysis. This study estimated and analysed the magnitude of vulnerability to food poverty based on data from the 2004 Nigeria Living Standard Survey (NLSS) obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics. The three-step Feasible Generalized Least Squares (3FGLS) procedure was employed in estimating the extent of vulnerability to food poverty in Nigeria. The results show that 61.68 per cent of Nigerians were vulnerable to food poverty; the incidence of vulnerability to food poverty varied significantly across zones and between the urban and rural sectors; and was highest in the South West zone (68.32 per cent) and lowest in North East zone (50.19 per cent); and it is more in the urban sector (64.61 per cent) than in the rural (59.37 per cent). It is evident that the magnitude of vulnerability to food poverty is very high. Thus, policies that will enhance people's access to food should be adopted and targeted transfers of subsidized basic food items should be used to sufficiently reduce vulnerability to food poverty in the country.

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