Adult Education and Rural Poverty Alleviation in Kebbi State

This study examined the contribution of adult education programmes to rural poverty alleviation in Kebbi State, North West Nigeria. Adult education is theoretically positioned as a human capital development investment capable of generating household-level economic improvements; however, empirical evidence on its poverty alleviation effects within specific Nigerian rural contexts remains uneven. The study adopted a descriptive-analytical design involving 90 adult education programme participants and non-participants from three rural local government areas, selected through stratified purposive sampling to ensure representation across livelihood types. Structured questionnaires, household income assessments, and focus group discussions formed the data collection framework. Findings indicated that adult education participants demonstrated significantly higher rates of livelihood diversification, formal saving behaviour, and productive asset ownership compared to matched non-participants. Vocational components within adult education programmes had the strongest direct poverty-reduction effects, while literacy-only programmes generated longer-term but less immediately measurable economic impacts. Male participants showed faster income gains post-programme compared to women, reflecting structural market access differences rather than differences in educational benefit. Recommendations include designing poverty-sensitive adult education programme models that explicitly integrate livelihood support components, establishing post-programme economic support structures such as savings groups and micro-enterprise clusters, strengthening linkages between adult education graduates and government poverty alleviation programmes including TraderMoni and MarketMoni, and conducting longitudinal follow-up studies to track participant economic trajectories over time. Keywords: adult education, poverty alleviation, rural development, Kebbi State, livelihood improvement.