Road Infrastructure and Socio-economic Transformation in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the status of road infrastructure development and the extent to which road infrastructure share a common property with the socio-economic transformation in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The total length of paved roads for more than three (3) decades (1987-2022) was sourced from the State Ministry of Works and Transport. The data were from secondary sources and key informants from the 31 sampled Nodes/Local Government Areas. Pearson Correlation Analysis was applied to examine which variables correlated or shared property. Findings revealed some milestones in road infrastructure development between 1999 and 2022 when the democratic government returned to Nigeria. This era also marked the most uncommon transformation of the socio-economic landscape of the State. The two phenomena showed a strong positive relationship and confirmed the
existence of a common property identified as an "Infrastructure Development Programme". Based on these findings, the evolution of a feasible infrastructure development programme in infrastructure concession or Public-Private Partnership is a sine qua non for positive change in road network improvement and socioeconomic transformation in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.