Journal of Hill Agriculture

The study analyzed economic growth, income and expenditure distribution among gum arabic marketers in Northern Nigeria. Data were collected through use of structured questionnaire and oral interview on 150 respondents in Adamawa, Taraba and Yobe states of Nigeria. Both inferential and descriptive statistics were used for data analyses. Results revealed that average gum arabic marketing experience and household size were 18 years and 12 people respectively. The income inequality distribution between and within groups of respondents were measured as N5.66 and N-0.999 respectively implying that there were significant variations in income generation between the groups of respondents but statistically insignificant within the groups. Also, the results depict significant variations in expenditures distribution between (N 4.99) and within (N 7.424) groups of respondents. There was a positive relationship between economic growth and gum arabic marketing among the respondents. The study suggested governments to assist the poor resource gum arabic marketers with soft loans to finance their business in order to enhance their purchasing power as well as to bridge the income inequality between them and the richer one's that monopolized the gum arabic business. This will create better condition for proper competition for a near perfect gum arabic marketing environment that will lead to more revenue generation and poverty alleviation in the study area.