ABSTRACT

The implications of urbanization on the city settlement of Umuahia, Abia State Nigeria was studied to examine if infrastructural facilities, income and expenditure profile, rent paid on accommodation and urban governance have been improved with growing population in the study area. There are twenty layouts/estates that spread across the study area. These layouts were zoned in clusters according to their locations, viz, urban (A), north (B), south (C), east (D) and west (E). Random sampling produced 10 layouts (50 percent). Households were systematically administered questionnaire. Out of 389 households sampled 353 responded completely representing 90.75 percent success. Data collected were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. The tables of response - age, sex, educational qualification, head of household, and relationship with head of household were validated with mean comparison of clusters using One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The result shows that head of household and educational qualification were statistically significant p = 0.005 and p = 0.010 respectively. The availability of infrastructural facilities to the population of the study area was analyzed using Multiple Linear Regression. Result shows that amount spent on road transport, amount spent on electricity, and distance to waste disposal point were statistically significant p = 0.05. The relationship between household incomes and expenditure profile of the study area was analyzed using Simple Linear Regression. The result shows that there is statistically significant relationship existing between expenditure and household income, p = 0.000 (p < 0.01). The average rent of accommodation for settlement livability was analyzed with One Sample t-Test. The mean rent of population was not significantly different from zero p=1.000. Mean rents of north, urban, south, and west clusters were not statistically significant (p > 0.05).  The mean rent of east cluster was statistically significant p = 0.000 (p < 0.01). The perception of people in the study area on urban governance in relation to standard of living was analyzed using Kruskal Wallis-H test. Result shows that there is a statistically significant difference in perception of study area on urban governance, χ2 (4) = 15.425, p = 0.004, (p < 0.01). The Post Hoc test shows that the difference on urban governance lies between west and east clusters p = 0.011 (p < 0.05) and urban and east clusters p = 0.019 (p < 0.05). The analyses of data in this research were based on 0.05 level of significance.  Overall result shows that there is infrastructure deficit in the study area. Accordingly, the SDG Goal II, sustainable cities and communities, make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable would be a ruse if collaborative efforts of residence of Umuahia and government of Abia State at large were not pooled together to strategize and rijig the present state of affairs