Home Economics as Mechanism for Actualizing Nigeria’s National Economic Empowerment Development Strategies

Home Economics is a skill-oriented discipline with potential to address unemployment, poverty, and related social challenges in Nigeria. Despite the implementation of the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), achieving its core objectives of poverty reduction, employment generation, and wealth creation, remains a challenge. This study therefore examined how knowledge and skills acquired in Home Economics can contribute to the realization of these objectives, particularly among youth. A descriptive survey design was adopted using a purposive sample of 1,199 undergraduate students from the Department of Vocational and Technical Education, University of Benin, Nigeria. Data was collected by the use of a structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that over 70% of respondents agreed that skills acquired in Home Economics, such as catering, fashion design, interior decoration, bead making, and childcare can significantly promote poverty reduction, employment generation, and wealth creation. High levels of agreement were recorded across all three NEEDS objectives, indicating strong perceived relevance of Home Economics in economic empowerment. The study concludes that Home Economics is a viable mechanism for achieving key objectives of NEEDS. It recommends increased government support and enrollment in Home Economics programs to enhance skill acquisition, foster self-reliance, promote job creation, and reduce poverty and social vices associated with unemployment.