ABSTRACT:

Poverty as a universal phenomenon has devastating effects on the lives of the people at the grassroots. Over the years, majority of the local p􀂗ople in Cross River State have been living in deplorable social conditions of frustration and deprivation due to lack of qualitative education, ignorance, poor access roads, inadequate health facilities, and lack of portable water. More than this, social amenities and material resources are in abysmal proportion making life miserable at the grassroots. Although government at periodic adjustment tried to initiate programmes aimed at eradicating poverty, yet the social picture created at the grassroots is one of alienation and increasing frustration of the local people. The study on local government and poverty reduction is therefore aimed at examining the efforts of Cross River State Local Government Councils at poverty reduction. It is fundamentally discovered that the distribution of motorbikes and sewing machines as poverty reduction mechanism of Local Government Councils in Cross River State are grossly weak, ephemeral and inadequate The study therefore recommends that for an enduring poverty reduction strategy, the councils should encourage educational advancement of the rural poor by effective scholarship award and skill acquisition training for those who have no capacity for higher education