Social Welfare Programmes and Socio-Economic Development: A Study of N-Power Programme in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

The paper examined the impact of the N-power programme on socio-economic development in Akwa Ibom State employing a survey method. Using the empowerment theory as its frame of analysis, the paper adopted the Morgan table to determine a sample size of 384 from a population of 3,826,000. Both stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to collect data from primary and secondary sources. The research major findings included the fact that there is an impact of the N-Teach programme on job creation in Akwa Ibom State; N-Agro programme has an impact on food sufficiency in Akwa Ibom State, and N-health programme has a significant impact on healthcare delivery in Akwa Ibom State. It was therefore concluded that the programme had demonstrated a potential to drive meaningful change in the state through job creation, food security, and healthcare delivery, among other initiatives. Thus, the study recommended that the Federal Government should review the programme to accommodate more unemployed graduates and transform the beneficiaries to full time staff with a proportionate salary; the Federal and State governments should improve on the programme through effective monitoring and boost measures that would encourage more involvement (particularly in the input and processing area) of the N-Power Agro programme to improve food production in Nigeria, among others.