Livelihood Build-up through Micro-entrepreneurship in Rural Nigeria

Livelihood build-up is one of the most important pathways to improving the economic activities of rural areas. Despite an increasing call for diversification, through entrepreneurship, most rural households are challenged by limited means of livelihood. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to identify livelihood options for rural households through micro-entrepreneurship and analyze determinants and constraints to livelihood build-up in rural areas of Ogun State in the Southwest region of Nigeria.

A two-stage sampling technique was used to select 900 rural households for the study. The required primary data for the study was collected through a structured questionnaire. The data on livelihood activities of rural households, micro-enterprises, and rural household characteristics were collected. Simpson index, multiple regression, and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.

The results show that aside from agriculture and agribusiness-related activities (0.501), micro and retail business enterprises (0.619) are the dominant livelihood activities in the rural areas. Livelihood build-up in rural areas is significantly determined by factors including the size of the rural households (β = 0.458, t = 3.092, p < 0.05), and access to credit (β = 0.416, t = 2.895, P < 0.05). Also, the results show that the livelihood build-up of most rural households is constrained by lack of access to credit, risk-averse attitudes of most rural households, low level of awareness, poor rural infrastructure, and rural transportation problems.

The study focuses on the pathway to building a better livelihood for the rural populace through entrepreneurship. The findings of this study provide insight into part of the policy strategy required to solve livelihood challenges in most rural communities.