Asset Ownership and Control among Women in Nigeria

Aims: To determine the level of asset ownership and control of women in rural Nigeria.

Study Design: Quantitative.

Place and Duration of Study: Data from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2013 on 23,403 women were collected. The sample for the DHS 2013 was a stratified sample, selected independently in three stages from the sampling frame. Information on 18,869 women with adequate data was used for the analysis.

Methodology: Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and composite score analysis.

Results: Mean age and household sizes were 36.03 ± 9.20 years and 6.51 ± 1.50 persons, respectively. A higher proportion owned physical assets such as mobile phone (68.66%), radio (63.54%) while 5.98% owned natural assets (land). Women in the intermediate-Level of Asset Ownership (LAO) category constituted 63.75% followed by the low-LAO and high-LAO categories with 20.33% and 15.92%, respectively. However, 57.49%, 48.79% and 44.84% of women in the low-LAO, intermediate-LAO and high-LAO, respectively, had no control over the assets they owned.

Conclusion: The level of asset ownership and control among women was low. Policies should be put in place for women to have control over the assets they owned.