61 Determinants of Asset Ownership by Women in Rural Nigeria Yetunde Olasimbo Mary OLADOKUN Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Ibadan, Nigeria E mail: yetunde.oladokun@gmail.com ABSTRACT Asset ownership plays a key role in improving the welfare of women. Nonetheless, there is dearth of information on the factors influencing asset ownership by women in rural Nigeria. Therefore, this paper investigated the level and determinants of asset ownership of women in rural Nigeria. Information on 18,869 rural women from the Demographic and Health Survey 2013 were used. Information on physical and natural assets, educational level, household size and age were removed for analysis. Level of Asset Ownership (LAO) was classified into low-LAO (≤1), intermediate-LAO (2-6) and high-LAO (7-10). Analysis was done through the use of ordered probit regression at α 0.05, composite analysis and descriptive statistics. In the study area the mean age and household size of the women were 36.0±9.2years and 6.5±1.5 persons, respectively. About fifty eight percent of the women had no formal education. Women in the study area owned physical assets [mobile phone (68.7%) and radio (63.5%)], whereas six percent owned land. Household size (β=0.23) and educational level (primary, β=0.37; secondary, β=0.70; tertiary, β=1.28) improved asset ownership while age (β=-0.02), marital status (divorced, β=-0.19), being employed in agriculture (β=-0.24) and female headed household (β=-0.52) reduced asset ownership. Probability of owning assets among women was significantly reduced in North-East (55.6%), North-West (44.8%) and South-West (7.9%), while it was improved in South-East (10.1%) and South-South (15.7%) relative to the North-Central. In rural Nigeria, ownership of assets by women is on the average. Interventions in the area of education are needed to improve LOA. Keywords: Physical assets, Natural assets, Rural, Nigeria, Women 1.0 INTRODUCTION Globally there is the apprehension about women‟s lack of ownership of asset such as land, house and other productive assets. Thus contributing to women‟s increasing poverty (Aluko, 2015; Paydar, 2012; Besley and Ghatak 2009). Blau et al. (2014) opined that, in our societies which are mostly patriarchal women get property rights mostly through their husbands. Women only use this assets but they do not own it (Steinzor, 2003). In many African societies there are cultural specificities among which are social and patriarchal which make women to suffer disadvantages in several aspects of life and are marginalised (Tuyizere, 2007; Ebila and Musiimenta, 2004). In the last fifteen years, the economic growth of Nigeria on the average has been about 7.4% annually (African Economic Outlook, 2012) but this growth has not significantly reduced poverty and deprivations suffered by the populace. The overall growth rate can be misleading as it reveals little about growth in different sectors and its real effect on livelihood (Aliyu and Garba, 2012). Over 1 billion people in the world today live under unacceptable conditions of deprivation mostly in developing countries, and particularly in rural areas of low-income Asia, Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the least developed countries. In Nigeria, 70% of Nigerians living below the national poverty line are women (Pwanagba, 2013). Despite Nigeria‟s increased economic growth in recent years, many women are still struggling on the margins of survival. Women‟s ownership of assets is likely to prevent them fr om falling into poverty and deprivation, leading to better outcomes for their children, or resulting in better outcomes International Journal of Innovative Social Sciences & Humanities Research 8(1):61-79, Jan.-Mar., 2020 © SEAHI PUBLICATIONS, 2020 www.seahipaj.org ISSN: 2354-2926