Global Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Analysis of Income and Expenditures Distribution among Gum Arabic Marketers in North-Eastern Nigeria

Haliru Y. U & P. O. Anegbeh

The study examined the income and expenditures distribution among gum arabic marketers in North-Eastern Nigeria. There are over 1100 different species of Acacia, called gum arabic found mainly in Africa. Three of these species; A. senegal, A. sayel and A. seberina happened to be the most economic ones as they are demanded worldwide for usage in virtually all human endeavourers. Nigeria is the second largest producer and supplier of gum arabic globally after Sudan. Data for the study were collected through the use of structured questionnaire and oral interview on 150 gum arabic marketers in Adamawa, Taraba and Yobe states Nigeria. Descriptive statistics and General Entropy class of measure models were used to analyse the data. Results revealed respondents’ mean age, gum arabic marketing experience and household size as 53, 18 years and 12 people respectively. The results for General Entropy class of measure indicate income inequality distribution between and within groups of respondents as N 5.66 and N -0.999 respectively. These imply that there were significant variations in income generation between the groups respondents but statistically insignificant within the groups. Also, the results depict significant variation in expenditures distribution between and within groups of respondents with statistical values as N 4.99 and N 7.424 respectively. The variations could be due to inequalities in income generation from gum arabic by the respondents. The study suggested government to assist the poor resource gum arabic marketers with soft loans to finance their gum arabic business in order to bridge the income inequality gap among the marketers. This will create better condition for proper competition for a near perfect gum arabic marketing environment that will lead to more revenue generation and poverty alleviation in the study area.