ATTITUDES OF NIGERIAN CONSUMERS TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION IN THE SOUTH-SOUTH REGION

Abstract

This paper examined the attitudes of Nigerian consumers towards sustainable consumption. Data were collected from 400 consumers visiting selected supermarkets in the six states in the south-south region of Nigeria. The intercept survey procedure was used in this study where the respondents (consumers) were intercepted in the course of making purchases at the twelve supermarkets visited. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit data from the respondents with respective to their attitudes towards sustainable consumption while an interview schedule was conducted among some marketers and retailers who stocked both sustainable and unsustainable products. The data collected from the respondents were correlated using the SPSS window 19.0 version. The results indicated that attitudes of Nigerian consumers (cognitive, affective and conative attitudes) are positively and significantly correlated to sustainable consumption while the results of the interview conducted among marketers and retailers revealed that such attitudes do not reflect in their buying behaviour judging by the sluggish sales of sustainable products when compared to unsustainable products, hence, an attitude-behaviour gap was established. Based on the empirical results, it was concluded that Nigerian consumers have a negative behavioural attitude towards sustainable consumption considering the fact the sales of sustainable products is very small when compared to unsustainable products. Hence, it was recommended that Nigerian consumers who claimed to have high cognitive, affective and conative attitudes should translate such attitudes into their buying behaviour as it would enhance sustainable consumption in Nigeria. It was also recommended that Nigerian consumers should patronize only sustainable products such as organic food, plastic products and energy saving bulbs, use less paper and avoid aerosols as it would help to achieve sustainable development in Nigeria.