Abstract

Literacy is crucial for the development of any nation and hence September 8th of each year since 1967 has been set aside as International Literacy Day to promote the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights. More importantly, functional literacy is an essential tool for entrepreneurial development and emancipation of rural women in a developing country like Nigeria. The national literacy survey of 2010 estimated the adult literacy rate in Nigeria as 56.9% with huge variations between regions (urban 74.6% and rural 48.6%) and sex (male 65.1% and female 48.6%). This indicates that literacy rate among rural women is low. Previous studies have emphasized on increasing literacy rate in Nigeria with little or no focus at enhancing functional literacy of rural women. Hence, this study intends to fill the gap by providing information on the importance of functional literacy for all round development of rural women. The broad objective of this study is to x-ray the roles of functional literacy as a sustainable tool for entrepreneurial development and emancipation of rural women in Nigeria. In order to achieve this broad objective the study reviewed literatures, cited author?s experience on the field and focus group discussion. Literacy education helps to equip individuals with the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for economic self-sufficiency, poverty reduction and sustainable development. In addition it also assists in the attainment of level of writing, reading and numeracy sufficient for the individual optimum participation in his personal and communal life. The paper concluded that rural women in Nigeria should be exposed to functional adult literacy programmes which would enable them to access financial opportunities that would improve their living standards.

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