Economic Development Implication of Rural-Urban Migration in Nigeria: Anambra State in Focus

Abstract

This paper examines the economic implication of rural urban migration in Nigeria with special focus on Anambra state. There is no doubt that over the years, the population of Nigerian cities has been increasing, no thanks to the seemingly uncontrollable movements from the rural areas to the cities. The causes of the phenomenon have been described as the push factors in the rural areas and the pull factors in the urban centres. The objective of this paper is to identify the implication of rural urban migration on Nigerian economy. It is a survey research. 1200 questionnaire were distributed among the selected local governments in the state. An analysis was done with the instrumentalism of SPSS using the chi- square test to further analyze the hypotheses. The result of the analysis shows that rural-urban migration has led to an increase in crime rate in the urban areas; rural-urban migration has negative economic impact as the attention of government is drawn to development of urban areas, thus neglecting the rural areas. The paper therefore recommends that government should pay attention to rural development such as good road, pipe born water, health facility, recreational centers, and schools with adequate learning facilities etc. The government should provide the enabling environment that should encourage the youths to engage in farming.