Poverty Alleviation

INTRODUCTION
Poverty - the inability of an individual or a family to meet up with the basic needs of life- is one of the most prominent problems of developing countries. Poverty alleviation seems to be the most difficult challenge facing many developing countries; where on the average, majority of the population are considered poor. The standard of living of poor populace has continued to worsen and this has become a major concern of governments, multilateral institutions and policy makers in different countries, with efforts geared towards appropriate strategies for poverty alleviation.
The current thinking on poverty alleviation has however focused on the promotion of opportunities, enhancement of security as well as the facilitation of

In a similar vein, Akinyosoye (2010) is of the view that infrastructure contributes to economic growth by increasing productivity and providing amenities which enhance the quality of life of the poor. Infrastructure is fundamental to human development. It is specifically important to improving the living standards of the citizenry. Therefore, infrastructure is the lifeblood of any economy as no economy can develop without a reasonable stock of critical infrastructure in transportation (roads, rail, ports and airports), energy, water, sanitation and communication etc. Where infrastructure is inadequate or ineffective, growth is affected and people’s standard of living is negatively impacted, resulting to high level of poverty.
It is disheartening to observe that the current state of infrastructure in Nigeria is very inadequate. As noted by Usman (2013), the stock of infrastructure remains below the international benchmark of 70% of GDP, and as at 2012, Nigeria core infrastructure stock stood between 35% - 40% of

This is why discourse and definitions of poverty in the views of Adebayo (2012) are multifarious and highly extensive. Existing literatures have however pointed to the fact that poverty as a concept is a global phenomenon which affects continents, economies, and peoples differently (Jegede, Kehinde and Akinlabi, 2011). Adebayo (2012), believes that poverty is pronounced only when the basic necessities of life (which include adequate income, education, good health, security, self-confidence and certain freedoms) are absent. This definition expresses the concept of poverty relatively to the life situations of people. In a broader perspective, Ekong (1991) asserts that poverty is a concept that has defied universally accepted and objective definition or assessment because it is not only an expression of life situation, but equally a state of mind and a perception of self in the complex web of social