113 ECONOMIC LINKAGES BETWEEN, ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND POVERTY REDUCTION: IMPLICATION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA Innocent OKWANYA 1* , OGBU Moses 2 &Abdulkareem ALHASSAN 3 1 Department of Economics, Federal University Lafia, Nassarawa State, Nigeria 2 Department of Economics University of Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria 3 Department of Economics, Federal University Lafia, Nassarawa State, Nigeria. *Corresponding author ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between total energy consumption and poverty rate in Nigeria. To achieve this purpose the study employs ordinary least square regression analysis and the cointegration analysis to test for the long run relationship. The study also use the Granger Causality test to ascertain if energy consumption Granger cause poverty or otherwise. The empirical results show that a long run co-integrated relationship exists between total energy consumption and poverty rate in Nigeria. The long-run co-integrating regression result reveals that if total energy consumption is increased by one percent poverty rate will decrease by 0.γγ percent. We also found a strong causal relation which runs from total energy consumption to poverty rate in Nigeria. These findings clearly indicate that energy consumption has a significant impact on poverty rate in Nigeria. The study recommends that there is need for the government to make energy available for the citizens so as to make them self-reliant-thus increasing employment opportunities, income level and reduce poverty rate in Nigeria. Keywords: Energy; poverty; causality; sustainable development. INTRODUCTION It was Adams Smith (1776) who said “No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which by far the greater part of the numbers are poor and miserable” (Todaro & Smith, β010). Poverty in sub-Sahara Africa is increasing despite efforts by the government and private organisations to reduce poverty. According to the World Bank (2013) reports, approximately 1.2 billion persons are living under $1.2 a day of which sub-Sahara Africa accounts for one-third of the world’s poor. This figure shows that poverty still pose a threat to a large population of human race and is a global phenomenon that should be top in the agenda of most countries in the world. In Nigeria for instance, poverty rate kept increasing in the face of an average growth rate of β.4 per cent over the past β0 years (World Bank, β01β). Unlike in other parts of the world, such as China and South Korea, most of these growths have not been translated into sustainable development. This is because economic growth cannot be sustained where there is no meaningful investment on the provision of workable energy that will power industrialisation and skill development especially in the grassroots. According to the World Commission on Environment and Development [WCED], 1987) there is sustainable development when a nation is able to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generation. This should include among other things improving the welfare of the poor. Unfortunately, about seventy per cent of people living in Nigeria especially in the rural areas are poor and have little or no access to infrastructure, experience low productivity and low incomes (World Bank, β01γ). In the early 1980s and 1990s the focus in most academic literatures has been on growth as a measure to reducing poverty. But the experience of most of the developing world has shown that growth is not a cure for poverty (Morduch & Sicular 2002). This is partly due to the fact that some sector of the economy may International Journal of Innovative Social Sciences & Humanities Research 3(2):113-120, April-June 2015 © SEAHI PUBLICATIONS, 2015 www.seahipub.org ISSN: 2354-2926