Social Capital Indexes as Determinants of Households’ Poverty Status in Southwestern Nigeria.

This study sought to provide empirical evidence on the effect of social capital indexes on the poverty status of the rural household in Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used to collect primary data using pretested and structured questionnaire. Analytical techniques employed include descriptive statistics, FGT measure of poverty, probit model and marginal effect analysis. Findings from the study showed that the mean age of the household heads in the study area was 50.67 ± 12.76. It was observed that most households were headed by male (89.00%). Mean expenditure among the households in the study area was N11,877.00 ± N7,066.80 per month. About 60.00% of the households in the study area were poor. Membership density index indicated that household heads within the age range of 41 - 60 years (or 44.95%) were members of more social capital networks compared to other age groups. Payback period (β = 0.022, p< 0.05), amount of microcredit received (β =0.001, p<0.1), microcredit processing time (β = -0.338, p< 0.01), cash contribution (β =0.012, p< 0.05), meeting attendance (β =0.007, p< 0.1), membership density (β = -0.047, p< 0.01)  and labour contribution indexes  (β = -0.008, p< 0.05) were the significant determinants of household’s poverty status among the sampled households. The concluded that poverty level was very high in the study area and that social capital indexes were major factors influencing households’ poverty status. Therefore, encouraging the poor households to join and participate in social capital networks could help to improve their poverty status.