Comparative Analysis of Households’ Socioeconomic and Demographic Characteristics and Food Security Status in Urban and Rural Areas of Kwara and Kogi States of North-Central Nigeria

Food security is a critical issue in Nigeria today as the country struggles with high rates of food prices and poverty. This study analysed the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of Household Heads (HHH) and classified them according to food security status. Household level data from the cross-sectional survey was employed in November 2006 to February 2007through a well-structured questionnaire to 396 HHH with a multi-stage sampling procedure. Data were analysed through a descriptive statistics and Rasch model. Average age of the HHH was 42.45years with Standard Deviation (SD) of 9.57 years in Rural Areas (RA) against 43.29 years and SD of 9.83 years in Urban Areas (UA). The HHH level of education was much higher in UA compared to RA. The Household Size (HSZ) was 5.88 with SD of 2.29 in RA against 5.91 and SD of 2.17 in UA, and monthly income of N9, 244.86 with SD of N11, 071.77 in RA against N10, 194.15 and SD of N14, 936.30 in UA. The results from Rasch Model for classifying households according to food security status show that differences exist between households’ food security status in rural and urban areas of Kwara and Kogi States. While 15.6% HHH were food secure (FS) in RA of Kogi State, only 11.1% were FS in the RA of Kwara State. On the other hand, 20.7% HHH were FS in UA of Kogi State compared to 17.1% in UA of KwaraState. Disaggregating food security status of adults and children in households separately revealed that, 25.8% adults in RA of Kogi State were FS compared to 19.2% in Kwara, while 24.4% urban adults were FS in Kogi against 23.2% in Kwara. In addition, 40.6% children in RA of Kogi State were FS against 32.3% in Kwara, while only 29.9% Kogi urban children were FS against 46.3% in Kwara. In general, households were more FS in Kogi State compared to Kwara and more FS in UA compared to RA. The rural children in Kogi State were also more FS compared to the urban, while urban children in Kwara were more FS when compared to rural children. In order to improve households’ food security status in both rural and urban areas, there is the need to take into account some significant variables such as reduction in household size through birth control, and increase in household heads’ participation in agricultural activities especially those residing in urban areas through urban agriculture

Analysis of differences in rural-urban households food expenditure share in Kwara and Kogi States of Nigeria

This study focused on analyzing the differential in households’ food expenditure between urban and rural households in North-central, Nigeria. Data used in the study were obtained through the use of a well structuredquestionnaire administered to 396 household heads, randomly selected from Kogi and Kwara states based on the proportional distribution of their population. The analytical tools employed were descriptive statistics such as percentages, means and charts. The pooled results from the two states revealed that households in the rural areas spend as high as 66.04% of their expenditure on food compared to 69.37% in the urban. Also observed was that, Kwara households spend more on food (74.39% in rural and 75% in urban) than their Kogi counterpart (57.41% in rural and 60.49% in urban). The female-headed households spend more (68.17%) on food than the male headed (68.01) ones. The results also show that expenditure on food increased with number of household members but decreased with household per capita income in line with Engel law. Household expenditure on staple food items was the highest in both rural and urban areas of Kogi and Kwara, followed by meats and other animal products. The proportion was found not to have decreased even with increase in household income contrary to the Bennett’s law. The percentage per capita expenditure of other important food items like fruits and vegetables was found to be very low compared to the staples and meat group. This has serious health implications on households in the study areas for an active and healthy life. Expenditure share on fruits and vegetables should therefore be increased. There is need for household size reduction through birth control and rate of dependency by other distant relationships besides providing food subsidy by the government to households

Effects of demographic factors on bank customers' attitudes and intention toward Internet banking adoption in a major developing African country

This study provides an African perspective to the global research and literature on retail customer adoption of Internet banking (IB). It empirically examines the influence of seven demographic variables – age, gender, level of education, marital status, employment status, income level and area of residence – on retail banking customers' behaviours toward IB adoption in a major developing African country – Nigeria. A sample of 500 customers was surveyed, and ANOVA and multiple regression analyses were used in testing the association of the variables with customer attitude and intention toward IB adoption. Although all seven variables were correlated with attitude and intention, only gender, level of education, and employment status showed significant ability to influence Nigerian customers' attitude and intention toward IB adoption. The study therefore concludes that gender, level of education, and employment status are the major demographic affecters of Nigerian banking customers' attitudes to IB adoption