Impact of State Government Development Scheme for Economic Empowerment on Community Dwellers of Anambra State Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the impact of Anambra Government’s Grassroots Development Scheme on economic empowerment of community dwellers especially the youths and women, in all the local governments of Anambra state, in Southeastern Nigeria. The purpose was to assess the major beneficiaries of the development scheme and determine the impact of the scheme on the common people especially the youth and the women. The work is anchored on community development theory which emphasizes holistic approach to development through participation of all tiers of government, from the federal administrative office to the regional and local governments to community dwellers at grassroots level. Primary data was used for the study. The questionnaire was used for collection of data. The number of respondents for the study is 975. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. The result of the study showed that a lot of the common people benefitted from the grassroots development scheme of the Anambra state Government. The hypothesis stated was tested at 0.05 level of significance to determine if the development scheme was beneficial to community dwellers of Anambra State using one sample Kolmogorov Smirnov Z test and it was rejected because the p value was less than 0.05 (Z=0.6.913, p=0.00). The research findings also showed that the development scheme of the Anambra state government had also impacted positively on the people of the state, especially the youth and the women. The statistical significance of this result was determined using Pearson Chi square coefficient. The hypothesis was because the p value was less than 0.05 (χ2=887.779, df =125, p=0.00). The study, therefore, concludes that the first tier of the grassroots development scheme of government in Anambra state impacted positively on the life of the community dwellers of Anambra state, particularly the youth and women. The study recommends that more of such development scheme should be embarked upon by different tiers of government and other states in Nigeria should replicate same in their own states. This will be a way of boosting the economy, reducing unemployment, and diversifying economic activities.