ABSTRACT

The study assessed the activities of ASOPADEC among rural communities in Abia State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study described the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, ascertained the extent to which ASOPADEC carried out her activities, ascertained the contribution of ASOPADEC towards community development, determined the perceived effect of ASOPADEC activities on the livelihood of beneficiaries, and ascertained the perception of the respondents towards ASOPADEC activities. The population of the study comprises of all the rural households in the oil producing areas of Abia State. Multistage sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 150 respondents using structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage and means and inferential statistics such ordinary least square regression analysis were used in analyzing the data. Results indicated that mean ages of the respondents was 37.5 years. Majority (78.0%) of the respondents were married with a mean household size of 5 persons. The mean monthly income was N57,503. The result revealed that ASOPEDEC activities were moderately carried out in the study area mostly in facilitating skill acquisition (x̅ = 3.86), provision of educational supports (x̅ = 3.53), and rehabilitation of markets (x̅ = 3.18). The result showed that ASOPADEC contributed mostly in rehabilitation of existing infrastructure in the area (x̅ = 3.18), facilitating the delivery of equipment and rehabilitation of health centres, mobile health, clinics (x̅ = 3.02). The result also showed that the effect of ASOPADEC was most prominent in youth development via skill acquisition (x̅ = 3.37), infrastructural development (x̅ = 3.31), and providing education for children through scholarship scheme (x̅ = 3.25). The result of the ordinary least square regression analysis showed that the coefficient of offering of scholarship (4943.598), youth and women empowerment (6455.393), facilitating skill acquisition (6224.787), and educational supports (9708.075) were positively and significantly related.to livelihoods status of respondents at 5%, 1%, 5%, and 1% level of significance respectively. The result also showed that the coefficients of sex (6.2582), education (0.0487), and income (4.53E-07) were significantly related to respondents’ perception regarding performance of activities of ASOPADEC at 1% significant level. The study conclude that ASOPADEC activities have moderately contributed to the infrastructural development as well as the livelihoods of the participating communities. It was recommended that Abia state Government should provide all vital financial and logistics support to ASOPADEC to enable her carry out her activities more effectively in Abia   state. ASOPADEC should commit more attention and resources towards providing infrastructural facilities in the rural communities and demonstrate concerted efforts to enhancing the development of the communities in the study area.