The Impact of Rural Roads and Bridges on the Socio-economic Development of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria: An Evaluation (Published)
Rural roads and bridges form the basis for transformation and communication. They constitute the most critical infrastructure in the rural, and by extension national development drive. Contributions of rural roads and brides to rural development include: accelerated delivery of farm inputs and evacuation of product and reduction in the cost of transportation. On the other hand lack of rural access roads has killed the dreams and resilience of those who may have chosen to live in the villages with their villages cut away from the city and potentials in the villages wasting away, these set of people have chosen to join the rest for urban life. Since majority of economic activities in our society depend in one way or the other on road infrastructure, Akwa Ibom State Government from 1999 made an effort to provide roads and bridges. This work therefore assessed the impact of government effort in the provision of rural road and bridges on the socio-economic transformation of the State. The study adopted a historical as well as descriptive approach in data collection. The study therefore revealed that the government efforts has increased socio-economic activities in the state as people and goods now move freely from rural areas to the urban centres. The study further revealed that provision of rural roads and bridges has equally helped to reduce the cost of transportation in the state. Above all, it has reduced rural urban drift in the state. Based on this, the study recommended that the government should sustain the present tempo by increasing fund allocation in the annual budget for rural roads and bridges.
Keywords: Akwa Ibom State, Bridges, Nigeria, Rural roads, Socio-economic development.