Unconditional Cash Transfer and Children’s School Attendance of the Vulnerable Households: The Case of Household Uplifting Programme in the Northcentral, Nigeria

Authors

  • I.C. Nwoko
  • G.C. Aye
  • Y.O. Olalere

Keywords:

Unconditional Cash Transfer, School Attendance, Vulnerable Household, Household Uplifting programme (HUP), Propensity Matching Score

Abstract

Evidence of cash transfer in children’s school attendance is limited in Nigeria and globally. This study investigates the impact of unconditional cash transfer known as Household Uplifting programme (HUP) on children’s school attendance of the vulnerable households in the Northcentral zone of Nigeria. The study used cross sectional data totalling 408 respondents and comprising of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries which were drawn from Northcentral zone using multistage sampling. The propensity score matching (PSM) was used to determine the average treatment on the treated (Att). The socio-economic analysis showed that the programme was designed for rural households and farming is their major occupation. The result of the average treatment on the treated revealed that participation in Household Uplifting programme had positive albeit insignificant impact on the school attendance of beneficiary’s children in the Northcentral Nigeria. It is recommended that policy makers should progress from unconditional to conditional cash transfer in order to make a significant impact on school attendance and enrolment especially in the Northcentral zone.

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Published

2022-08-09

Issue

Section

Articles