Impact of Conditional Cash Transfer on Households Food Security in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria
22 Pages Posted: 6 Aug 2024
Date Written: May 31, 2024
Abstract
The Nigerian government introduced the Household Upliftment Program (HUP) which is a conditional cash transfer scheme to help households improve consumption levels, reduce poverty and therefore prevent vulnerable households from becoming poorer. This paper investigated the impact of Condition Cash Transfer of HUP on household food security in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. We investigated the impact of CCT on protecting the beneficiary's basic level of food consumption from becoming food insecure and also determined if CCT of HUP facilitate the beneficiary to invest in human and other productive assets. Our findings showed that on average, benefitting and non-benefitting households spent about N31,917.78 ($76.46) and N34,898.67 ($83.60) respectively on food per month. Food insecurity was higher among benefiting households compared to non-benefiting households. In contrast, benefitting households had a higher proportion of food-secure households than non-benefitting households. The Average Treatment Effect on the Treated (ATET) estimator value was-0.2610. The negative value suggests that, on average, the conditional cash transfer had a detrimental effect on the food consumption of the beneficiaries compared to non-beneficiaries. On average, benefiting households spend 26.10% less on food consumption than non-benefitting households. However, the CCT program facilitated the beneficiaries' ability to invest in human and productive assets, enhanced their financial and social inclusion, opened doors to financial services previously inaccessible to many and fostered a sense of community among them. These positive outcomes extend to the next generation, with beneficiaries now able to support their children's education, thereby breaking the cycle of poverty. We concluded that while conditional cash transfer programs have the potential to positively impact beneficiaries, the findings underscore the necessity for the government to reassess and potentially adjust the program to better address the current inflationary pressures and ensure its positive impact on the food security and overall well-being of the beneficiaries.
Keywords: Food security, cash transfer, impact evaluation, Nigeria, food consumption, propensity score
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