Method and Procedure
The study employed Quantitative design and availability sampling technique in selecting the number of households while multi-stage sampling is used to select samples from the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Sokoto State. The researchers utilized a structured questionnaire as instruments of data collection The EAs selected for the study are those the General Household Living Standard (GHLS) Survey conducted by Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in collaboration with World Bank in 2020 as its sample. From the survey, Sokoto metropolis has a representative sample of 230 households, 10 households randomly selected from each of the 23 wards in the study area. The phone contacts of the 230 sample households collected in the GHLS survey were used for mobile phone survey opted in this study. The household heads constituted the respondents for the study.
However, the data collected on the basis of the research questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation). The decision rule is that averages of 3.0 and above was considered as agreed, while an average of 2.99 and below were considered as disagreed with respect to research questions. A mean of 3.0 according to Yusuf, Gambari, Daramola, Badmus and Isiaka (2018) was used as a criterion to decide the mean scores for five-point items. Hence, the mean criterion of 3.0 was calculated from the sum of 5+ 4+3+2+1 divided by 5.
2.1 Brief Description of the Study Area
Sokoto State is located in the extreme Northwest of Nigeria and has a total of twenty three (23) LGAs. According to the census conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2006, it has an estimated population of more than 4.2 million with vast land of 27,973km, square. Over 80% of people living in the state practice agriculture with an annual average temperature of 28.30C and the rainy season are from June to October. In another survey by the NBS in 2010, Sokoto state’s GDP per capita stood at $1274 billion but the poverty rate is 50.6%, the unemployment rate is 17.9%, average household size is 5.6% and population density is 133.07km2. As of 2012, the percentage of the population that is food poor is 56.5%, income inequality is measured at 0.46% and incidence of poverty stood at 81.3% in 2015. Figure 1 presents its geographical features and the 23 local government areas in the State.
Figure 1: Sokoto State at a Glance