GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT Rural women are women groups based in rural communities with the clear objective of bringing succour to themselves and the community and with a view to strategizing ways of reducing poverty starting from their immediate communities. These have culminated in the adoption of strategies to reduce poverty in the communities. This study therefore examines the poverty reduction strategies adopted by these women in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. To give the study a direction, research questions were formulated based on the identified poverty reduction strategies adopted by these women via their income generation activities, financial interest accumulation, joint farm labour and group visitations with gifts. Relevant literature was reviewed with theoretical framework to concretize the study. The major instrument used for data collection was a 20—item structured questionnaire entitled; “poverty reduction evaluation questionnaire (PREQ)” as the primary data used to elicit questions from the response in the Likert scale. The multi-stage sampling technique was adopted to select respondents for the study (cluster, purposive and simple random). The population of the study was 12 (out of 650) registered rural-based women organizations with Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Women Affairs as reflected in the three Senatorial Districts of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. A sample of three hundred and sixty (360) respondents from the 12 organizations was proportionally and randomly selected for the study. Two null hypotheses were formulated and all the formulated hypotheses were tested using population t-test analysis statistical instrument. The result of the findings shows that all the four null hypotheses were rejected, which also shows that all the identified variables of income generation activities, financial interest and joint farm labour, significantly influenced the adopted strategies of poverty reduction among women. The study found that if women are encouraged, they can do more exploit for the growth of their communities. Key words: Poverty reduction, Rural-Based Women organizations (RBWOs), Akwa Ibom