ACCESSIBILITY ANALYSIS OF RURAL SERVICE CENTRES IN AKOKO SOUTH WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, ONDO STATE

ABSTRACT

The study analyzes access to Rural Service Centres in Akoko South West Local Government Area, of Ondo State. Primary data used in the study was collected using questionnaire and a hand-held GPS receiver to capture the coordinate points of Rural Service Centres and other relevant data. Secondary data include Google Earth Imagery, and population figures of the study area. A total of 151Rural Service Centres were located in the local government area. For easy analysis the rural Service Centres were grouped into three. The first group is made up of the various schools in the study area and is called Schools; Second group is made up of Health Care centres, Pharmacy, and drug stores and they are called Health Care services, the last group is made up of Borehole, Banks, and Filling stations, they are called other rural facilities. GIS operations like Buffer, overlay, query techniques, and Average Nearest Neighbour Analysis were used to evaluate accessibility to Service Centres. The analysis shows that, 46.8% of the respondents travelled a distance of 1km, 36.5% travelled a distance of 1-2km, and 12.8% move a distance of 1-3km, 2.8% 1-4km and 1.3% use up to 1-6km before accessing a rural service center, motorcycle and trekking were the major mode of access . It was observed that Oka-Akoko been the Local Government headquarter has more rural service centres than other settlements in the LGA. Result also indicated the underserved areas. The study recommended that before setting any rural facility, government or NGO should identify the optimal locations in the setting of rural service centres. Also establishment of more facilities like tertiary institution, Borehole and banks should be taken into consideration as this will decongest the existing facilities and improve the specialized services they provide and priority should be given to the underserved settlements.