EXPLORING WOODEN BOAT BUILDING AS A SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISE IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION OF NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the prospects and challenges of wooden boat building as a small and medium-scale enterprise (SME) in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Data collated from structured questionnaire were analysed using descriptive statistics, simple linear regression and analysis of variance. Statically, 64.4% of wooden boat builders are above 40 years of age and 91(68.94%) out of the 132 of those surveyed in the industry have only primary school education and below, while less than 3% have tertiary education. Tested hypotheses reveal a lot of challenges (2.78 mean variance, higher than the benchmarked 2.5), very low prospect level (mean variance of 1.96) and very low contribution to rural poverty alleviation at its current rate of operation (2.06 mean variance). Mean variance of 3.0303 signifies probable solutions which can turn the industry
around. To achieve its rural poverty alleviation goals, it is recommended, among others, that the government should incorporate wooden boat building into its skill acquisition programmes as well as provide access to modern tools and equipment to improve the efficiency of the builders.