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most small scale entrepreneurial businesses in the country. They see business as
means of generating income to meet end means. Therefore, this study determined the poverty status
and profitability of women entrepreneurs in Ogun State, Nigeria. Data were obtained from primary
source using a set of structured questionnaire assisted with interview schedule. The multistage
sampling technique was used to randomly select 135 women entrepreneurs in baking and
confectionery enterprise for the study. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, gross margin,
Foster – Greer Thorbecke (FGT) and multinomial logit model analyses. The findings showed that
majority of the respondents (85%) were married, 82.2% of the sampled respondents had at least
primary education with average age of 43 years’ old and 93.3% had at least 4 persons per house. The
study further revealed that total revenue and net profit accrued per annum were N1, 032,480.00 and
N475386.01 respectively. The result of the expense structure ratio (ESR) of 0.04 showed that 4%
of the total cost of this enterprise made up the fixed cost items. The values of gross margin (N496,
571.26), benefit cost ratio (1.85) and percentage profit (85%) indicated that baking and confectionery
was a profitable business in the study area. The results of FGT showed that poverty incidence (Po),
poverty depth (P1) and Poverty severity (P2) for the poverty line of $1 and $1.25 USD per day were
0.44, 0.14, 0.57 and 0.11, 0.17, 0.10 respectively. This implies that 14% and 17% of the poverty line
of $1 and $1.25 respectively were needed to get out of poverty. Results of multinomial logit model
revealed that experience, income and access to credit were the main factors that significantly
influenced the level of poverty in the study area. The study therefore concluded that baking and
confectionery enterprise is a profitable venture that could generate more income and alleviate
poverty in the study area.