Measuring Inclusive Growth in Nigeria: An Application of the Social Opportunity Function

Abstract Inclusive growth, pro-poor growth and broad-based growth are all terms used to explain growth processes that enables the entire population including the poor to actively participate and benefit from the growth process. In the last two decades Nigeria’s GDP has averaged at about 7%, indicating a fast-growing economy. Despite having a high GDP growth rate, it has not translated to improved standard of living for majority of the people, rather the level of poverty is on the increase. Income inequality has also widened in the country. This clearly shows that increase in GDP alone is not a sufficient condition for reduction in poverty and inequality. In order to avoid the problem of unwanted labour reserves with high growth rate, it is important to make growth inclusive. This study utilised the opportunity index to analyse the growth and equity dimension of inclusive growth across the entire population distribution. Cross sectional data obtained from the General Household Survey (GHS) 2015, by the National Bureau of Statistics was used. This study revealed that inclusive growth was not achieved in the area of employment, provisions of health care in the private and rural health institutions, secondary and tertiary education.