Assessing the Impact of Macroeconomic Policy and Energy Crisis on Poverty Alleviation Among Residents of Calabar Municipals of Cross River State, Nigeria

Ugeh; Richard Angioha; Achu; Alfa Charles; Ntah; Stella-Maris C.

doi:10.56201/ijefm.v11.no2.2026.pg111.121

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Assessing the Impact of Macroeconomic Policy and Energy Crisis on Poverty Alleviation Among Residents of Calabar Municipals of Cross River State, Nigeria

Ugeh, Richard Angioha, Achu, Alfa Charles, Ntah, Stella-Maris C.

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of macroeconomic factors on poverty alleviation among residents of Calabar Municipality in Cross River State, Nigeria, between 2015 and 2024. Specifically, it examined the extent to which inflation, high fuel costs, and macroeconomic policies influence the effectiveness of poverty reduction programmes in the area. The study adopted a time series research design and employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag model approach to capture both short-run and long-run relationships among the variables. Annual secondary data were sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics , Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin, and World Bank Development Indicators. Poverty alleviation was proxied by household consumption expenditure, inflation by the consumer price index, fuel cost by the average pump price of premium motor spirit , and macroeconomic policy by government expenditure and interest rate indicators. The ARDL bounds testing technique of Pearson, Shin, and Smith (2001) was applied to test for cointegration, while diagnostic tests confirmed the validity and stability of the model. Empirical results revealed that inflation and high fuel costs exerted significant negative effects on poverty alleviation efforts, while macroeconomic policy indicators collectively showed a significant positive long-run relationship with poverty reduction outcomes. The study concluded that macroeconomic policies play a critical role in improving the effectiveness of poverty alleviation programmes when properly managed to mitigate inflationary pressures and fuel cost fluctuations. It therefore recommended among others that policymakers adopt balanced and inclusive macroeconomic reforms aimed at price stability, energy cost regulation, and fiscal efficiency to enhance sustainable poverty reduction in Calabar Municipality.

Keywords

InflationFuel CostMacroeconomic PoliciesPoverty AlleviationARDL Model.

References

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Assessing the Impact of Macroeconomic Policy and Energy Crisis on Poverty Alleviation Among Residents of Calabar Municipals of Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

Keywords

References

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