ASSESSING THE EFFECT OF NIGERIA LOCAL CONTENT POLICY ON SELECTED DEVELOPMENT INDICES IN AKWA IBOM STATE

Before now, Nigeria had experienced low-quality growth rate for a decade as seen in its inadequate operational variation and slight economic transformation as a result of low contribution of oil and gas sector and the manufacturing sector to the Nigerian economy in general and Akwa Ibom State in particular as compared to other countries. The Nigeria’s over reliance on foreign investors managing her oil and gas sector and other major manufacturing sectors has made it difficult to think of developing the manufacturing sector or diversifying the economy into other sectors that will aid development. It is obvious to note that, many of Nigeria’s manufacturing firms are depending on foreign experts for efficient production thus making Nigeria inefficient and uncompetitive and this make the rate of unemployment and insecurity high in Nigeria in general and Akwa Ibom State in particular. This study therefore assesses the effect of Nigeria local content policy on selected development indices in Akwa Ibom State. It uses descriptive survey research design the analyzies. Research questions is use to guide the study and hypothesis is formulated to test the variables at 0.05 level of significance. This enables this study to evaluate the effect of local content policy on selected development indices in the state. The population of the study consists of 600 respondents from Eket, Ikot Ekpene and Uyo senatorial districts of Akwa Ibom State and this comprises of 300 randomly selected male and 300 female respondents in the state. This means 200 respondents is selected from each senatorial district. The instrument for data collection is structured questionnaire and is first validated by experts. The internal consistency of the questionnaire as validated by the experts determines the use of quantitative method of analysis. Mean and standard deviation is use to analyze the research questions while t-test is use to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study identify the areas of local contents that will help improve some indices of development in the state.