Integrity Journal of Education and Training

Poverty and unemployment remains a common feature of the Nigerian economy, with 62.6 per cent of the population living in poverty. Despite the enormous potentials and natural endowments in Nigeria, efforts aimed at eradicating poverty do not always yield expected dividends, thus escalating the rate of terrorist activities, banditry, kidnapping, prostitution, and other anti-social behaviours. Failure in poverty eradication efforts has often been attributed to corruption and the inability of beneficiaries to effectively utilize the resources. This is most often because the beneficiaries lack the capability and the skills required for the effective investment of the resources provided. This paper discussed the role of skills acquisition in promoting poverty eradication in Nigeria. The review covered the concepts of skills and skills acquisition; poverty and poverty eradication in Nigeria; roles of skills acquisition in poverty eradication; problems associated with skills acquisition in Nigeria, and approaches for enhancing skills acquisition in Nigeria. It was concluded that skills acquisition in relevant fields holds great promise in enhancing the productivity of poverty eradication efforts, and promoting sustainability in the efforts to eradicate poverty in Nigeria. Major recommendations made include private individuals, political office holders, NGOs, relevant government agencies and other corporate organizations should consider skills training programmes as integral components of their poverty alleviation efforts, while political office holders who have constituency portfolios and responsibilities should consider the establishment of skills training centres, renovation and equipping vocational and technical education institutions as key projects in their constituencies.