International Bulletin of Business Administration ISSN: 1451-243X Issue 10 (2011) EuroJournals, Inc. 2011 http://www.eurojournals.

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Promise of Entrepreneurship Education as a Field towards Alleviating Poverty for Sustainable Human Development
AJAYI, KASSIM O. Department of Educational Management, Tai Solarin University of Education Ijagun, Ogun State, Nigeria AGBAJEOLA, RACHAEL O. Department of Educational Management, Tai Solarin University of Education Ijagun, Ogun State, Nigeria OKUSANYA, ADEDOYIN O. Department of Business Education, Tai Solarin University of Education Ijagun, Ogun State, Nigeria. Abstract Poverty is a problem with many faces. One face may show the material conditions, which involve the absence or lack of goods and services for the people. Another face may depict the economic positions of the people, which involve certain situations where a person or a group of persons have low income with limited resources. The other face of poverty, which is social, affects the poor through exclusion, lack of entitlement, and being too dependent on others in order to live. It deprives the individuals of essential productive assets and opportunities to which every human being should be entitled. In addition, such people are likely to have limited access to institutions, markets, employment and public services. The study is a non-experiment type and a survey research design was adopted. The sample of the study was selected using the multi-stage sampling procedure. Three research questions and one research hypothesis were answered using questionnaire titled Entrepreneurship Education as a Panacea towards Alleviating Poverty for Sustainable Development questionnaire (EEPAPSDQ). Data were analysed using frequency counts, percentages and Pearson Product Moment Correlation while the hypothesis was tested at p < 0.05 level of significance. One of the findings recommended that standard permanent infrastructures, training workshops, classrooms, well-equipped with modern facilities should be built for entrepreneurship programmes by the government through private partnership, philanthropist and NGOs.

Background to the Study

Poverty is a problem with many faces. One face may show the material conditions, which involve the absence or lack of goods and services for the people. Another face may depict the economic positions of the people, which involve certain situations where a person or a group of persons have low income with limited resources. The other face of poverty, which is social, affects the poor through exclusion, lack of entitlement, and being too dependent on others in order to live (Fasokun, 2004). According to Allen and Mac Elroy (2005), poverty is described in the context of developing countries as: 86

i. Lack of material well-being which is usually expressed among the citizens in terms of a daily struggle to meet the most basic needs for food, water and shelter. ii. Lack of access to healthcare delivery by which treatment could have prevented or avoided countless death, food and long hours of work. iii. The physical pain that comes from too little food and long hours of work. iv. Emotional pain stemming from the daily humiliation of dependency. v. The moral pain of forcing people to make critical choices within severe limits of frugality. vi. Lack of employment or lack of productive land and other income earning assets. According to Oreh (2005), poverty is regarded as a state of chronic insufficiency, economic inequality, a condition of want, scarcity and a dependence on others for every necessity of life. Based on the forgoing, poverty is usually a complex multidimensional problem, which has to do with lack of control over resources, including land, skills, knowledge, capital and social connections. It deprives the individuals of essential productive assets and opportunities to which every human being should be entitled. In addition, such people are likely to have limited access to institutions, markets, employment and public services. In any situation of an extreme poverty, poor people tend to have numerous disadvantages more than their better-off counterparts do. They are usually less healthy; they have less developed language skills (a factor that has negative influence on school achievement) and above all, they are generally less well equipped socially, emotionally and physically to undertake a school programme. If no one takes into account their disadvantaged position, it is very likely that they will be unable to benefit fully from the school system (i.e education and poverty eradication). Omolewa (2006) stated that, it is important to note that no country has succeeded in eradicating poverty if it has not educated its people. According to him, not only is education important in reducing poverty, but also a key to wealth creation. He therefore concluded that every successful entrepreneur brings benefits to himself or herself, as well as, his or her nation as a whole. He highlighted the benefits derived from entrepreneurship education as follows: i. Self employment, offering job satisfaction and flexibility of the work force, that is, entrepreneurial ventures are the major source of new jobs in the economy. ii. Development of more industries, especially in rural areas disadvantaged by economic changes for example due to globalization effects. iii. Enormous personal financial gain which ensures good standard of living, that is, income generation and increased economic growth. iv. Entrepreneurship education activities are a real-life vehicle for development of academic skills which enhances economic sustainability of entrepreneurs. v. Through entrepreneurship education, more goods and services are available for processing into finished goods/products for domestic consumption as well as for export. vi. It enables employees to be more successful as a result of understanding the operation of a small business and the problems of their boss. vii. Entrepreneurs are found in virtually every occupation or career clusters. viii. Development of entrepreneurial activities creates many new markets. ix. It promotes the use of more technology in small-scale manufacturing to enhance higher productivity. x. Encouragement of more researches / studies and development of modern machines and equipment for domestic consumption. xi. Development of entrepreneurial qualities and attitudes among potential entrepreneur to bring about significant changes in the rural areas through poverty reduction. xii. Freedom from the dependency on the jobs offered which in turn, results into self-reliant individuals. xiii. The ability to have great accomplishment is derived from entrepreneurship education. xiv. It creates wealth for the nation. 87

xv. Entrepreneurship education ensures reduction in high crime within the society. It is within this context that UNESCO (2007 and 2009) pledges Education for All (EFA). This EFA policy will promote a sustainable and well integrated sector framework which linked to poverty elimination and development strategies. According to Omolewa (2006), education is the key to development, the only passport to liberation as well as to political and financial empowerment. Gifford (2004), states that quality basic education as well as vocational training, and skill acquisition throughout life are indispensable tools to eradicate poverty. Obemeata (2003), agrees that education prepares individuals for life and make them useful member of the community. This shows that education is very necessary in order to articulate and realises ones potential. But the formal system of education alone, which is selective, cannot provide all education that is necessary to realise ones potential. The terminologies, such as continue-education, recurrent education and long life education like entrepreneurship education have been used by different people to stress that education should be co-terminous with life. Indeed, education is associated with empowerment. Without massive strive towards reducing illiteracy, expanding educational opportunities and improving the quality of education given to the people in the society, it will be difficult to eradicate poverty or realize the potential development of all countries. Empowerment according to Ofuasia (2004), simply means making people do things they could never do before. In other words, giving people powers to enable them do what they could not have done ordinarily. This implies that they have gained adequate knowledge and capacity, the confidence, the help and indeed the ideas to decide what is best for them, and to act accordingly in fulfilling their own potentials. There is therefore the need to embark upon wealth creation, which is a significant aspect in education. This is because education ensures access to training and empowerment opportunities. Literacy is being hailed as the only strategy through which to reach the elusive goal of empowerment either politically or economically. One of the ways of achieving this is through the integration of school education within the economic activities of a community. In this way school education will help to improve traditional trade skills of the people alongside other curriculum contents. This will ensure their future employment possibilities and contribute to the economic well-being of the people. Furthermore, the traditional trades would reinforce learning through entrepreneurship. Okeke (1996) stated that literacy education provides a foundation for helping to alleviate and improve social, economic and political status of people. Akinwande (2004) reports that, unlike economic strategies, the impact of education in poverty eradication tends to be less direct, even though it provides long term benefits; it is certainly a way of fighting poverty. According to him, education is the pivotal in breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and social exclusion because it has the benefit of increasing earnings, improving health and increasing productivity. UNESCO (2007 and 2009) has therefore committed itself to addressing the poverty challenges through all its fields of competence, especially through entrepreneurship education. It emphasizes the critical role of both formal and informal education in the development and achievement of poverty eradication and other developmental goals as envisaged in the millennium declaration of UNESCO (2000). In particular, it endorses the use of basic education and training for eradication of illiteracy at UNESCO (2004). It strives for expanded vocational education and technical training for the creation of human resources and infrastructure capabilities, and the empowerment of decreasing poverty through entrepreneurship education in the acquisition of vocational skills, knowledge and ideas that can help them earn their own living either literates or illiterates. These and many more reasons are why the Ogun State government believed that vocational education and technical training for the creation of human resources and infrastructure capabilities should be taken seriously in Ogun State; and Ogun State in her effort towards this development has established centers for Ogun State Government Employment Generation and Empowerment Programme (OGEGEP) in some local government areas in Ogun State, Nigeria, which is gradual gaining ground, but the response to this new area of specialization is inadequate, hence should be addressed. 88

Significance of the Study

Despite the importance of entrepreneurship education in alleviating poverty, it is quite unfortunate that one of the major challenges faced by developing nations is the low level of entrepreneurship education awareness considering the need of this education in the society. It is on this premise that the present study sought to find the extent to which entrepreneurship education with regards to its contribution to mass literacy, trainees job performance, active participation in the development of participants immediate locality and above all, to improve the standard of living of the participants. This led the researchers to the formulation of the following research questions and hypothesis using the Ogun State Government Employment Generation and Empowerment Programme (OGEGEP) local government areas where the centres are. Research Questions Q1. What have been the responses of beneficiaries of entrepreneurship education as a panacea for poverty reduction in OGEGEP? Q2. Of what significance is entrepreneurship education to human development for poverty reduction in OGEGEP? Q3. What are the possible factors militating against the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education as a panacea for poverty reduction? Research Hypothesis Ho1: There is no significant relationship between the responses of the beneficiaries of entrepreneurship education and poverty reduction.

Methodology Research Design The study is a non-experimental type and a descriptive survey design was employed. The survey technique was adopted to gather relevant data from the target respondents in the sampled OGEGEP local government areas as regards government effort towards poverty alleviation in the state. Population All the training centres of the OGEGEP in Ogun state constituted the population for the study. Specifically, there are fourteen training centres in Ogun state. The small scale farmers, businessmen and women, as well as the civil servants who had participated and benefited from various poverty alleviation programmes organized by OGEGEP as entrepreneurship education served as the respondents to the questionnaire that was admitted. Study Sample and Sampling Technique The sample of the study was selected using the multi-stage sampling procedure. At the first stage, three OGEGEP centres were purposively selected from the fourteen centres in the state. At the second stage, the stratified random sampling technique was used to select a total of ten OGEGEP programmes from the three centres selected in Ogun state, Nigeria and these are: poultry production, honey-making, soap making, sewing, printing, cream making, fishery, painting, shoe making and catering. At the third stage, simple random sampling technique was employed to select a total of 30 respondents comprising of male and female who had participated and benefited from each of the ten poverty alleviation programmes organized by the OGEGEP. Altogether, a total of three centres, 10 poverty alleviation programmes and 300 respondents were involved in the study.

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Instrumentation The instrument used to collect data for the study was a questionnaire titled Entrepreneurship Education as a Panacea towards Alleviating Poverty for Sustainable Development questionnaire (EEPAPSDQ). It consisted of four sections. Section A was demographic. It sought information from the respondents about their name, sex, age, marital status, religion, educational background and occupation. Section B was designed to obtain information on factors militating against poverty reduction, significance of entrepreneurship education on poverty reduction and entrepreneurship education as a panacea for poverty reduction. Section C consisted of 15 Likert scale items with four options ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The response format was numeric in scale; the items were judged on a single dimension and arranged on a scale with equal intervals. The more favourably respondents judged the items, the higher the numerical value. Scores for each of the items ranged from one to four. Positive statements were scored using ascending scores while negative statements were scored in reversed order. Section D was on the responses of beneficiaries to the significance of entrepreneurship education as a panacea for poverty reduction. Validity and Reliability of the Instrument For the purpose of this study, both the face and content validity of the instruments were ensured. To ensure face validity of the instrument, the initial drafts of the instrument was scrutinised by experts and colleagues in educational management and educational evaluation who were required to check for all non-technical flaws in the instrument and match each statement of the questionnaire with the research questions and hypotheses to ascertain whether the instrument actually measured what it was supposed to measure. The content validity of the instrument was enhanced by suggestions from the experts and colleagues, as well as inputs at various seminars and conferences. The reliability of the instrument was determined through the use of cronbach alpha () and the reliability coefficient of the instrument was established as 0.79 which indicated that the instrument was reliable for the study. Administration of the Instrument The researchers and two research assistants were involved in the administration and retrieval of the instruments. Returns were however received from all the 300 respondents. Out of this figure, returns for 20 questionnaires were not duly completed and were discarded leaving a total of 280 which represented 99% of the sample used. The data collected were analysed using frequency counts, percentages and Pearson Product Moment Correlation while the hypothesis was tested at p < 0.05 level of significance.

Results
Research Question 1 What are the responses of beneficiaries of entrepreneurship education as a panacea for poverty reduction in OGEGEP? In answering this question, data on the responses of the people who had participated and benefited from OGEGEP programmes were collected from the responses to statement of the questionnaire on this note, the data collected were analyzed using frequency counts and percentages. The findings are presented in Table 1 below.

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Table 1:
S/N 1.

Entrepreneurship Education as a panacea for poverty reduction

Strongly Agree (SA) 265 (95%) 169 (60%) 130 (46%) 30 (11%) 123 (44%) Agree A 15 (5%) 94 (34%) 95 (35%) 41 (15%) 101 (36%) Disagree D -06 (2%) 40 (14%) 115 (41%) 40 (14%) Strongly Disagree (SD -11 (4%) 15 (5%) 104 (37%) 16 (6%)

Statements

Entrepreneurship education facilitates self employment. 2. The knowledge gained can be passed from generation to generation. 3. It is a political deception programme. 4. The programme failed to produce individuals that are self-reliant. 5. The poverty reduction programme covers many field of life. Source: survey, 2010

The result in table 1 reveals that in statement 1, 265 (95%) of the respondents Strongly Agree while 15 (5%) of them Agree that entrepreneur education facilitates self-employment. This is in agreement with the findings of May and Weaver (1997) which asserted that there is a strong correlation between entrepreneurial start up rate, growth in the national gross domestic product (GDP) and the employment rate. In statement 2, 169 (60) of the respondents strongly agree while 94 (34%) agree that the knowledge gained in entrepreneurship education can be passed from generation to generation, 06 (2%) disagree while 11 (4%) strongly disagree with the statement. This support the findings of Fasokun (2004), that entrepreneurship education from those entrepreneurs that have succeeded in the sector of their establishment can transfer the knowledge, skills, innovations, motivation and creativity to the upcoming entrepreneurs. In statement 3, 130 (46%) of the respondents strongly agree while 95 (35%) agree that entrepreneurship education as a panacea for poverty reduction is a political deception programme. 40 (14%) of the respondents disagree and 15 (5%) strongly disagree with the statement. Adeniyi (2005) finds that in spites of the abundant human and material resources, Nigeria is endowed with, poverty has tended to deepen and expand over the years as the succession of authoritarian region and deceptive politicians mismanaged the economy, polarized society and undermined the basis for national unity and advancement. Thus, at the end, the beneficiaries of the systems (Poverty Alleviation Programmes) are the same big-men that the political system is made-up of. Oladokun (2006) supported this finding when he said that government claimed to know and understand who the poor are and what they need in order to alleviate their poverty. The big-men cannot possibly claim to understand what it is to be poor. Only the poor understands poverty and it is also the poor that knows how their poverty could be alleviated. He therefore concluded that programme should be embarked upon because the people need them, not because some contractors (who stands to profit from the projects) are pushing for them. In statement 4, 30 (11%) of the respondents strongly agree and 41 (15%) Agree that the program failed to produce individuals that are self-reliant, while 115 (41%) disagree and 104 (37%) strongly disagree with the statement. According to Akinboye (2005), the kind of education that teaches the recipients to be self-reliant, job creator and innovative. These are in line with the goals and objectives of entrepreneurship education. In statement 5, 123 (44%) of the respondents strongly agree and 101 (36%) agree that the poverty reduction program covers many field of life, while 40 (14%) disagree and 16 (6%) strongly disagree with the statement. Jude (2004) asserted that entrepreneurship education can positively impact a learner at all levels in a wide number of contexts. This explains why there are such a wide variety of 91

entrepreneurship education programmes, all of which can provide important outcomes at various stages of a learners life. Research Question 2 What are the possible factors militating against the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education as a panacea for poverty reduction?
Table 2:
S/N 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Factors Militating Against the Effectiveness of Entrepreneurship Education to Reduce Poverty

Strongly Agree (SA) 179 (64%) 73 (26%) 81 (29%) 168 (60%) 101 (36%) Agree A 43 (15%) 70 (25%) 50 (18%) 64 (23%) 112 (40%) Disagree D 11 (4%) 112 (40%) 87 (31%) 39 (14%) 56 (20%) Strongly Disagree (SD) 47 (17%) 25 (9%) 62 (22%) 9 (3%) 11 (4%)

Statements Fund meant for the programme ends in private pocket. The training session is boring. Training takes place only in the evening. Many people did not participate in the programme. It is time consuming.

Source: survey, 2010

Result in Table 8 above shows that in statement 1, 179 (64.0%) of the total respondents strongly agree and 43 (15.0%) agree that fund meant for the programme ends in private pocket while 11 (4.0%) of the total respondents disagree and 47 (17.0%) strongly disagree that fund meant for the programme ends in private pocket. These results are supported by the Global Witness (2000) which reports that funds from aids and natural resources are often diverted into private hands and then sent to banks overseas as a result of graft. In statement 2, 73 (26.0%) of the total respondents strongly agree and 70 (25.0%) agree that the training session is boring while 112 (40.0%) of the total respondents disagree and 25 (9.0%) strongly disagree that the training session is boring. Statement 3, 81 (29.0%) of the total respondents strongly agree and 50 (18.0%) agree that training takes place only in the evening while 87 (31.0%) of the total respondents disagree and 62 (22.0%) strongly disagree that training takes place only in the evening. Statement 4, 168 (60.0%) of the total respondents strongly agree and 64 (23.0%) agree that many people did not participate in the programme while 87 (31.0%) of the total respondents disagree and 62 (22.0%) strongly disagree that many people did not participate in the programme. Thus, the study found that operations of small scale enterprises have undergone little or no change since they were established. Statement 5, 101 (36.0%) of the total respondents strongly agree and 112 (40.0%) agree respectively that the programme is time consuming while 56 (20.0%) of the total respondents disagree and 9 (3.0%) strongly disagree that the programme is time consuming. The fact that entrepreneurship education is a life-long learning process has at least five distinct stages of development. The stages include competence, awareness, creative application, start-up, and growth. This allows to-be-entrepreneurs to take time to acquire more skills, innovations and technology of know-how in the career they have chosen. Thus, it could be concluded that the time spent on it justify the benefit of the programme. Research Question 3 Of what significance is entrepreneurship education as a panacea for poverty reduction?

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Table 3:

Responses of Beneficiaries to the Significance of Entrepreneurship Education as a Panacea for Poverty Reduction
Statements Entrepreneurship education creates wealth for the nation. It is a programme meant for solving all economic problems. It improves the standard of living of the beneficiaries sometimes. It reduces crime rate level Strongly Agree (SA) 101 (36.0%) 73 (26.0%) 112 (40.0%) 73 (26.0%) 112 (40.0%) Agree A 84 (30.0%) 84 (30.0%) 112 (40.0%) 129 (46.0%) 134 (48.0%) Disagree D 39 (14.0%) 56 (20.0%) 39 (14.0%) 44 (16.0%) 22 (8.0%) Strongly Disagree (SD) 56 (20.0%) 67 (24.0%) 17 (6.0%) 34 (12.0%) 12 (4.0%)

S/N 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

It facilitates self employment Source: survey, 2010

Statement 1, Table 3 reveals that a total of 185 (66.0%) respondents agree that entrepreneurship education create wealth for the nation while 95 (34.0%) of the total respondents disagree with the statement. UNESCO (2007 and 2009) elucidates that no country has succeeded in eradicating poverty if it has not educated its people. According to UNESCOs report not only is entrepreneurship education is important in reducing poverty, it is also a key to wealth creation. In statement 2, 73 (26.0%) of the total respondents strongly agree and 84 (30.0%) agree that is a programme meant for solving all economic problems while 56 (20.0%) of the total respondents disagree and 67 (24.0%) strongly disagree that it is a programme meant for solving all economic problems. Gifford (2005) is of the view that opportunities can be realised in several ways and the most popular one is through a new business. Another approach is to promote innovation or introduce new products or services or markets in existing firms, all these programmes help to solve immediate need of the masses. Statement 3, 112 (40.0%) of the total respondents strongly agree and another 112 (40.0%) agree that entrepreneurship education improves the standard of living of beneficiaries sometimes while 39 (14.0%) of the total respondents disagree and 17 (6.0%) strongly disagree that entrepreneurship education improves the standard of living of beneficiaries sometimes. This implies that provision of education and training in a nation is a tool for escaping from poverty to prosperity. This suggests that the greater the access to qualitative education and training is, the lesser the poverty experienced in that nation. In statement 4, 73 (26.0%) of the total respondents strongly agree and 129 (46.0%) agree that entrepreneurship education reduces crime rate level while 39 (14.0%) of the total respondents disagree and 17 (6.0%) strongly disagree that entrepreneurship education reduces crime rate level. Puckland (1999) highlighted the benefits of entrepreneurship education to society as follows; increasing earning power, enrichment of quality of life, maintenance of free market economy, promotion of equal opportunity, reduction in crime rate and enhancing personal fulfillment. A close look at the numerous benefits derived from education shows that poverty can be reduced to bearest minimum if entrepreneurship education is made priority. Statement 5, 112 (40.0%) of the total respondents strongly agree and 134 (48.0%) agree respectively that entrepreneurship education facilitates self-employment while 22 (8.0%) of the total respondents disagree and 12 (4.0%) strongly disagree that entrepreneurship education facilitates self employment. The findings of statement 5, are in conformity with Akinboye (2005) who called for a value added education which can to inject values of creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, emotions, character needed skills, competence, knowledge, attitude and heart desired job. This type of education can only be linked to entrepreneurial education. Thus, Gifford (2005) concluded that the kind of 93

education that can bring about poverty reduction will be education that teaches the recipients to be selfreliant, job creators and innovative. Research Hypothesis Ho1: There is no significant relationship between the responses of the beneficiaries of entrepreneurship education and poverty reduction.
Relationship Between the Responses of Beneficiaries of Entrepreneurship Education and Poverty Reduction
N 280 280 Mean 5.66 5.44 S.D 8.12 8.73 Df 278 Pearson () 0.267 Sig. 0.826

Table 4:

Scores Responses Poverty reduction Source: survey, 2010

The result in Table 4 revealed a significant outcome (r = 0.267, P<0.05). This implied that a positive correlation exist between the responses of the beneficiaries of entrepreneurship education and poverty reduction. The Table further revealed that the relationship is significant. Thus, the responses of the beneficiaries showed that entrepreneurship education acquired by the beneficiaries reduced their poverty level. That is entrepreneurship education leads to human development and in return reduces poverty level of the beneficiaries.

Recommendation
It is imperative to make some recommendation with a view to improving and enhancing entrepreneurship education in the local government area and the country at large since entrepreneurship education is a developmental process and a key driver of the nations economy. It is therefore extremely important in entrepreneurship education to imbibe the ability to identify or recognise a market opportunity and the ability to generate a business idea, service or product that aimed at reducing poverty. Base on these, it is recommended that: i. Public awareness should be created through the print media, radio and television in order to encourage large turn-out from people who are interested in acquiring skill through entrepreneurship education. ii. There should be a monitoring team that must ensure that funds meant for entrepreneurship education programme are properly spent by the political government officials. iii. Youths and young adults who are agile and have high interest in entrepreneurial venture should be given more opportunities to participate in all the programmes. iv. Standard permanent infrastructures, training workshops, classrooms, well-equipped with modern facilities should be built for these programmes by the government through private partnership, philanthropist and NGOs. v. Educational qualification should not be a barrier or requirement for entrepreneurial skills acquisition in order to give more room to those who are illiterate. vi. Issues of political manipulations should be removed totally from the programme. That is, anyone who is interested should be given the opportunity to freely participate and should be devoid of political deception. vii. Parents and guardians should be made to know that entrepreneurship education is not meant for dull or physical challenge students but for all people in as much as poverty persists. viii. Soft loans with low interest rate can be made available for beneficiaries who could not raise fund to start a business of interest by the government at all tiers and other financial institutions most especially micro-finance banks. 94

ix. Adequate materials needed for the entrepreneurship education programme should be provided before, during and after the training sessions by the government, philanthropist and NGO bodies. x. Certificate of participation should be given to participants of the programme in order to encourage them.

References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] Akinwande, T. (2004). Entrepreneurship in Business Enterprise. Journal of Business Policy, 8(1), 44-52. Allen, D. S. and MacElroy, A. (2005). Entrepreneurial Education as a Lifelong Learning Process. http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/lifelong learning / 2005/01.pdf. Fasokun, T. (2004). Adult Education and Poverty Reduction: A Global Priority. A paper presented at the conference held at the University of Botswana, 14-16, June, 2004. Gifford P.C (2004). Poverty reduction strategy in Africa. Proceeding of the 16th International Conference on Entrepreneurial education and sustainable development, 16(1) 121-130. Obemeata, J.O. (2003). Education: An unprofitable industry in Nigeria. Being a valedictory lecture delivered at the Faculty of Education theatre hall, University of Ibadan. Ofuasia, J.N. (2004). Contributions of literacy education to women empowerment in Aniocha local government area of Delta state, unpublished M.Ed. Thesis, university of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. Okeke, B.A. (1996). Education on indispensable tool for rural development: In B.G. Nworgu (Ed) education for rural development Obosi. Pacific publisher. Omolewa, O. V. A. (2001). The Nature of Poverty in Nigeria. Monograph Series No.13 Ibadan. Oreh, J.D. (2005). Welfare reform and poverty alleviation: Human capital development. Journal of Human Resources and Management, 24(1) 56-65. Puckland, P. (1999). Linking Credit with Literacy and Life-skills. Evaluation, Policy and Planning Division UNICEF, http://www.unesco.org/education/poverty/vietnam.shtml UNESCO, (2000). Millennium Declaration: Education for all - Daker Framework for Action, http://www.unesco.org/edu/efa/millennium_declaration.htm/ed_for_all/dakfram_eng.sht UNESCO, (2004). Goal: Achieve Universal Primary Education, Millennium Development Goals Reports. http://www.unicef.org/mdg/education Accessed January 5, 2005. UNESCO, (2007). Role of Education in Poverty Eradication. Accessed February 18, 2010. http://www.unesco.org/education/efa UNESCO, (2009). Education and Poverty Eradication. International Workshop on Education and Poverty Eradication, Kampala. Uganda, 30 July to 3 August 2009. http://www.unesco.org

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