Empowerment of Textile Market Women in Southern Nigeria

The study adopted survey research design and purposive sampling technique to select two Geo-political Zones in Nigeria. Disproportion stratified random sampling technique was used to select specific markets for the study. One thousand and six hundred (1,600) respondents were randomly selected from 22 markets within 11 states from Southern Nigeria. Questionnaire was used to collect data to elicit information from 1,556 (97.9%) respondents. Correlation, multiple regression and Pearson Product Moment Co-efficient (PPMC) were used to test the hypotheses. The reliability coefficient for information need was 0.71; information seeking 0.71; information sourcing 0.89 and information use was 0.95 while socio-economic empowerment was 0.95 using Cronbach alpha. The result indicated that the Nigerian textile market women were innovative, dynamic and creative in their entrepreneurial activities when they are empowered with information, which invariably would bring self-sustainability and societal development. The study concluded that the information behaviour of Nigerian textile market women in terms of needs, seeking, and sources have significant influence on their socio-economic empowerment