THE IMPACT OF HIV/AIDS ON HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND PRODUCTIVITY: (A CASE STUDY OF NORTH CENTRAL REGION OF NIGERIA)

This paper examines the impact of HIV/AIDS on household income and productivity in Nigeria using North Centre Region (NCR). The HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the region is the highest among the six regions in the Country and is estimated to be 7.2 percent which is above the National prevalence rate of 4.1 (National Bureau of Statistics, 2010). The focus states in NCZ include: Benue, Niger, Nasarawa and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). These four states have the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in NCZ as revealed by National Bureau of Statistics (2009).The theory of production was utilized as the theoretical framework for the study and the empirical analysis will be carried out using primary data of 1000 households that have a member(s) suffering from the illness. Both the logistic regressions and Pseudo regression was adopted for the analysis. The preliminary result (pivot study) has shown that HIV/AIDS has adverse impact on household income and productivity in each states and the region as a well. It is recommended that, the government should assist household experiencing the illness through provision of cheap antiretroviral drugs, financial aims and provide jobs to infected economic active persons.