Drivers of socioeconomic and cultural factors affecting rural development in nsukka lga, enugu state, nigeria

Abstract

Over the years, Nsukka Local Government Area (LGA) of Enugu state, Nigeria has been experiencing a slow rate of development. Based on this therefore, this work was designed to investigate the drivers of socio-economic and cultural factors militating against rural development in Nsukka Local Government Area. A purposeful sampling was used to select one hundred (100) respondents in each of the five rural Villages, making it a total of 500 respondents. Questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. Data was represented using simple percentages, charts, and Chi-square. of the 500 questionnaires shared, 483 were correctly and completely filled and analyzed using SPSS. The findings revealed that traditional belief system, gender segregation, land use system, mismanagement of project funds, poor execution of projects and non-involvement of community members in planning and execution of rural development projects constitute some of the drivers of socio-economic and cultural factors militating against rural development in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu state, Nigeria. The result also showed that there was a statistically significant relationship (P <.033) between respondents’ level of education and participation in rural development. Finally it was recommended that rural people should learn to welcome and harness development despite their cultural belief system and there should be a collaborative effort of the government and the people, more especially the youths in planning and implementation of rural development projects.