Assessment of Rural Dwellers Satisfaction with Quality of Infrastructure in Rural Settlements of Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study evaluates the responses of rural dwellers to an aspect of their environment, the quality attributes of the infrastructure provided for their use. The quality attributes considered were derived from location, management, economic, environmental and physical qualities of the respective infrastructure namely health, education, water supply, electricity and road.To achieve this aim, a multi-stage sampling technique was employed to systematically select 22 rural settlements in 22 local government areas. In all, a total of 1,792 rural dwellers were selected. Chi-square (X2) was used to determine the relationships between the quality attributes and perceived level of satisfaction of the respondents in the study area. The findings revealed that the quality attributes of the infrastructure such as availability of personnel, drugs and equipment, distance to facilities, cost, regularity and maintenance of facilities as well as quality of infrastructure were perceived by the rural dwellers to be generally unsatisfactory. Chi-square analysis revealed that there exists significant relationship between perceived level of satisfaction and the entire infrastructure considered. The results of the chi-squire analysis are all significant at 5% level. It can therefore be concluded that the quality attributes of the facilities were generally perceived as unsatisfactory by the rural dwellers. The paper recommends regular monitoring and proper maintenance jointly by the providers and beneficiaries. Keywords: Satisfaction, Rural Dwellers, Infrastructure, Quality attributes, Transformation and Rural Settlements