Determination of Residents’ Priorities of Basic Infrastructural Needs in Okpoko Urban Slum Settlement, Anambra State, Nigeria

One of the most visible and disturbing characteristics of most urban areas in Nigeria is the decline of infrastructure base. Okpoko is one of those Nigeria urban cities facing a lot of decay with lack of basic infrastructural facilities and public utilities. Various effort have been made by World Bank, Federal, State and Local government development agencies to improve the slummy nature of this area, all have virtually proved unsuccessful. Okpoko still lacks almost all the basic services and public infrastructure for a better living. There is a critical knowledge gap of determining and prioritizing the basic infrastructural and urban services needs of Okpoko urban slum settlement base on the perception of the residents. This study therefore is aimed at determining residents’ basic infrastructural and urban services needs priorities in Okpoko urban slum settlement. The study adopted the survey research design. The research gathered data from a survey involving 362 household heads from a sample frame of 34,987 households. Employing a questionnaire method. Principal component analysis and relative importance index were subsequently employed to scrutinize the gathered information. The outcomes revealed that the seven most demanding and pressing needs of Okpoko community in terms of infrastructural facilities and basic services in other of the most priority, from the most preferred were - Residential upgrading needs, institutional needs, health needs, security/safety needs, transportation/circulation, environmental/physical needs and recreational needs. This revelation underscores the pivotal infrastructural needs of Okpoko community and calls for methodical urban planning and new project development in the area. The study established infrastructural needs where government or non-governmental or donor agencies’ interventions are most needed for robust and sustainable urban renewal program in Nigerian cities