ABSTRACT
The Nigeria’s Public Sector has ballooned, in part since
independent in 1960, on the back of the oil-boom years of the
1970s. the country had more 2000 public enterprises by early
1990s and there were concerns about inefficiencies and have
negative effect on the aggregate economy, consequently, most
of them have either been privatized or commercialize.
Ostensibly, global economic literatures and parameters
reveal that small-scale industry is the bedrock of economic
development. It is one of the secrets or catalyst behind the
Asian tiger’s dramatic economic growth over the years. The
various Nigeria governments have also adopted or pursued one
policy or the other intended to foster grassroot development,
and improve the standard of living of our rural dwellers. All
these policies and programmes have failed to impact
significantly on those areas.
The researcher affirming the global view on small-scale
industries, decided to investigate the contributions of smallscale
industry to Nigerian rural areas, having Arochukwu and
Ohafia Local Government Areas as the hear-beat of the Study.
The researcher adopted the use of questionnaire and oral
interviews as statistical instrument for the study. During the
study, 500 questionnaires were randomly distributed to 500
respondents in 41 villages of the local government areas. The
data collected were presented and analyzed using Chi-square
at 95 percent confidence level (ie x = 0.05).
The study reveal that small-scale industry is the engine
of rural economic development. The industry creates job
opportunities and also provides basic infrastructures and
social amenities. Small-scale industry motivates other
economic activities that guarantee qualitative standard of
living.
Nevertheless, the researcher concluded that small-scale
industry is the catalyst to Rural Economic Emancipation, state
and local government should encourage the establishment of
scuh industry in the rural areas of their objectives of grassroot
development will be achieved.
