POVERTY AMIDST PLENTY: CAN AFRICAN INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SALVAGE THE POVERTY CRISIS? THE CASE OF NIGERIA

Abstract

Despite Nigeria’s enormous natural and human resources, the country remains entrapped in chronic poverty and developmental fragility. This paradox of “poverty amidst plenty” raises crucial questions about the sustainability and appropriateness of Western-led development paradigms that often marginalise local epistemologies. This paper explores whether African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS) can serve as a transformative tool for poverty alleviation in Nigeria. Through a qualitative synthesis of ethnographic studies, policy documents, and secondary data, the paper examines how indigenous agricultural practices, community-based governance, traditional healthcare, and informal economic networks sustain livelihoods where modern systems fail. The findings reveal that indigenous knowledge is not merely cultural residue but a living system of adaptive intelligence with potential to complement formal poverty reduction policies, where development is defined socioeconomically and culturally by the people, for the people and from the people. The paper concludes that the revalorisation of indigenous knowledge through integration into education, agriculture, economics and governance, offers a pragmatic pathway toward inclusive and sustainable development. Specifically, the Nigeria government and financial operatives should link traditional savings and investment schemes with Microfinance Banks in rural and semi-urban areas to empower low-income groups to foster a hybrid rural economy of AIKS.