Road Transportation, Food Inflation and Unemployment in the Rural Areas of the Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria

This study focused on the impact of road transportation on food inflation and unemployment in the rural areas of the Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria, with the main objective of seeking to proffer policy recommendations through which road transportation can be used positively to improve the standards of living of the rural populace in the study area. Primary data was utilised from a sample of Four hundred and twenty respondents selected from twenty rural settlements. Five attributes of road transportation were studied as independent variables, while two variables/proxies of were analysed as dependent variables, using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. The study employed descriptive and other quantitative techniques in the analysis and employed the Ordered Logistic (OL) model to test the hypotheses. The test of hypotheses revealed that the Null hypotheses were rejected in the two tests carried out and the Alternative hypotheses were accepted, meaning that the state of road transportation impacted on food prices and level of employment of rural dwellers in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. The study recommended that there the Area Councils should rehabilitate roads by improving the earth and gravel-coated ones that are predominant in their respective Area Councils; that the unemployment situation can be improved through renovation, construction and rehabilitation of rural roads through direct labour; and that that the Area Councils should establish the equivalent of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in their Area Councils and fund them appropriately to tackle the menace of worsening rural roads.