lmpact of access to livelihood assets towards sustainable poverty reduction in Sokoto State, Nigeria

The issue of poverty has become a global concern of which tackling the concerned issue would necessitate the commitments from the affected households and relevant institutions. Poverty is an outcome from a multitude of causes, ranging from economic, political to social factors. However, poverty is seen in this study as lack of sustainability in livelihoods among households. This condition is due to their lack of access to livelihood assets, effective livelihood strategy and proper government support which are fundamental in ensuring sustainable livelihood and fighting poverty.
The study was conducted in Nigeria, particularly Sokoto State, which has been described by some institutions as the state with the highest incidence of poverty in the country. Hence, this study is designed to examine the impact of access to livelihood asset, adoption of livelihood strategy and moderating effect of government
intervention towards ensuring sustainable livelihood and poverty reduction in Sokoto State, Nigeria. The study adopted quantitative approach, of which the survey method was used to collect data through stratified simple random sampling. A total of 323 data
from respondents were received and analyzed using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The research findings showed that there is significant positive relationship between access to livelihood asset, livelihood strategy
and sustainable livelihood which in tum lead to sustainable poverty reduction. On the moderating factor, government intervention was found to affect the relationship between access to physical asset and sustainable poverty reduction, albeit there is no effect on the relationship between other livelihood assets, livelihood strategy and
sustainable poverty reduction. This study recommends that in order for sustainable livelihoods and poverty reduction to be achieved in Nigeria and Sokoto State in particular, ownership of livelihood assets and developing effective livelihood strategies are very crucial, while efficient government support must be in place to
ensure that household livelihoods are secured. The study draws from Malaysia's strategy of poverty reduction and thus, recommends a comprehensive policy action that addresses important opportunities for entrepreneurship, microfinance scheme,
technical and vocational skill, land reform, infrastructural development, and social protection, as an essential strategy for poverty reduction.