Paper short abstract:

This paper considered domestic remittances among rural households in Nigeria and studied its effects on household food security and expenditure-utilization pattern likewise the sources, types, and regularity of receipt of remittances by the rural households were considered in this study.

Paper long abstract:

As a result of migration, the positive reward which is remittance viewed as extra income inflow into the recipient household has the ability to sustain and develop the rural households in Nigeria. This study assessed the effect of domestic remittances on expenditure shares and food security of rural households in South-West Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select rural households. Descriptive statistics, Food Security Scale (FSS), 2-Stage Heckman Regression model and Multinomial Logit Regression were used to analyse the data. Result from this study discovered that more than half of the household heads were male, married, had at least primary education and received domestic remittances mostly quarterly either through personal delivery or other means. Main type of domestic remittance received by majority the rural households was cash remittance, with a few receiving non-cash remittance, while other households received both cash and non-cash remittances. Remittance utilization was mainly on farm investments while the Food Security Scale (FSS) revealed that lesser households were food secured, few of the rural households were food insecure without/moderate hunger and most households were food insecure with severe hunger. . Multinomial Logit Regression model showed that remittance reduced the risk of a household being food insecure with severe hunger. The Two-stage Heckman Regression model revealed that increase in the receipt of remittance would increase expenditure share of the rural households on farm investment, health and education. This study has found a positive influence on the welfare of recipients of domestic remittances in rural Nigeria.