ABSTRACT

Abstract

Poverty alleviation programmes have been continuously introduced by successive governments in Nigeria from independence in 1960 up till date. Despite several attempts at combating this scourge of poverty, it is far from been conquered because as of todayNigeria has the largest number of people living in extreme poverty, with an estimated 87 million Nigerians, or around half of the country’s population, thought to be living on less than $1.90 a day. This was based on a projection by the World Poverty Clock and compiled by Brookings institute. Experts have attempted on different occasions to examine these programmes and have adduced reasons for their failures. This paper considers an Islamic perspective to poverty alleviationprogrammes with a brief outline of certain distinctive Islamic principles, historical method is adopted. The paper adopts literature survey approach as basis for the discussion. There is a resounding optimism in the prospect of poverty alleviation programmesif the identified principles are injected.