Abstract

Since the beginning of this millennium, successive Government initiatives have focused on increasing prosperity and bridging welfare divides for all areas in Nigeria. These objectives are being pursued in line with the United Nations Millennium Declaration and core principles enshrined in the Nigerian Vision 20-20-20. Despite enormous investment in poverty mitigation programmes, more than half of Nigerians still live in relative poverty with over a third of the population languishing in extreme poverty. In this report, we use novel geodemographic modeling techniques to profile and interpret the correlates of lack and prosperity across Nigerian Local Government Areas (LGAs). We discovered that the magnitude of inequality in the distribution of wealthy and poorer households vary significantly within and between community types. Findings from our analysis also show that different community types are better suited to different pro-poor policy initiatives. The research discussed in this report represents the first attempt to use geodemographic techniques to model and visualize spatial inequality in welfare across Nigerian LGAs. The report provides evidence that there is significant value in using such techniques to better target populations and households most at-risk and to support poverty alleviation initiatives.