Skill development and economic empowerment among women in selected states in southwest Nigeria

Despite the emphasis placed on women empowerment at international scenes, the issue of women empowerment in Nigeria has become unnecessarily replete with rhetorics without adequate strategies to achieve it.The study was conducted to investigate the effect of skill development (hairdressing, fashion design, culinary arts, computer technician and graphic design) on economic empowerment (income; and productivity) among women in selected States in Southwest, Nigeria. The study adopted survey research design and sourced data by administering questionnaires to 665 women from the designated States (Oyo, 318; Ogun, 193; Ekiti, 154) who had to have benefited from training and skill development programs in each of the LGAs of the Southwestern geo-political zone were given copies of a well-structured questionnaire.The analytical methods used to describe the nature of the data include Kurtosis, Skewness, Mean, Standard Deviation, and Simple Percentage. Using correlation analysis, Pearson Products A study was done to determine the extent to which women in Southwest Nigeria's progress toward self-reliance and skill development. Regression analysis was used in the study to determine the association between women's skill development and self-reliance in Southwest Nigeria.The results of linear multiple regression analysis for the effect of skill development is significant on the income of women in the Southwest Nigeria revealed the presence of a significant effect (F(5,544) =355.674, p= 0.000). This result implies that skill development significantly affect the income of of women in the Southwest Nigeria. Conclusively, skill development affect economic empowerment of women in Southwest Nigeria. In addition, based on the finding of the study that skill development (hairdressing, fashion design, culinary arts, computer technician and graphic design)has significant effect on economic empowerment (income) among women in selected states in Southwest, Nigeria, the study therefore recommended that governments in the three-tier of governance should focus more of their attention on empowering women through vocational trainings so as to improve on their income thereby making them to be more relevant in the scheme of things most especially in view of the skyrocketed cost of living all over the world.