Article

Incidence and socio-economic dimensions of begging in Nigerian cities: The case of Ogbomoso

David V. Ogunkan¹ and Olufemi A. Fawole²

¹Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria.

²Department of Sociology, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: Ogunkansvictor@yahoo.com.

Accepted 10 September 2009

   Introduction

This study is an empirical report of the incidence and dimension of begging in Nigerian cities with Ogbomoso as a case study. The enumeration of beggars was conducted on different weekdays at different wards in Ogbomoso Township to obtain data on incidence of begging while questionnaires were administered on randomly selected beggars to obtain information on their socio - cultural and socio - economic characteristics. The data, presented in percentages revealed high incidence of begging on Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The socio economic Characteristics of beggars reflect that begging is more pronounced among male, married, Illiterates and the aged, while the socio – cultural characteristics revealed that begging is prevalent among Muslim Hausas. Recommendations were offered, based on the findings of the study, to address the problem of begging in the study area and by extension in Nigerian cities

Key words: Panhandling, sponging, mendicancy, vagrants, cyber begging, professional beggars.