Asset Ownership and Welfare Deprivation of Women in Rural Nigeria: A Bi-Causal Relationship

Abstract

Women are an important segment of the human population and appropriate investment in their welfare would be of great benefit to the individual, household, and community levels. There has been an increasing incidence of welfare deprivation among women in rural Nigeria. However, information on the link between asset ownership and welfare deprivation of women in rural Nigeria is scanty. Thus, the relationship between the level of asset ownership and welfare deprivation of women in rural Nigeria was investigated. Data on 18,869 women living in rural Nigeria were sourced from Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 2013. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics, composite score analysis, fuzzy analysis and Instrumental Variable(IV) Tobit Regression at α0.05. A higher proportion of the rural women-owned physical assets such as mobile phone (68.7%) and radio (63.5%), while only 5.9% owned natural asset (land). Women in low-LAO, intermediate-LAO and high-LAO were 20.3%, 63.8% and 15.9%, respectively. Level of asset ownership (β=-0.31), age (β=-0.01), being a widow (β=0.04), being a female household head (β=-0.08), and Geo-Political Zone (North-East, β=0.04; South-East, β=-0.05; South-West, β=-0.07) explained welfare deprivation of women. A unit increase in the level of asset ownership led to 30.8% decrease in welfare deprivation.  An increase in the level of asset ownership decreased welfare deprivation. Asset ownership had a positive influence on women’s welfare deprivation.