Assessment of users and operators’ challenges on inland water transport in Borgu Local Government Area, Niger State.

Abstract

The inland water transport in Borgu local government area (BLG) plays a vital role in the movement of people and goods from one place to another. This paper, therefore, examines the users and operators challenges facing inland water transport in BLG. To do this, a questionnaire survey of inland water operators was carried out. A total of 395 questionnaires were administered in ten (10) riverine communities. The finding revealed that inland water transport is very common in BLGA. The operators of water transport are exclusively males' because 100% of the respondents were all males, similarly, the type of boat used is 100% wooden boats. It also discovered that the socio-cultural behaviour of the people negatively affects inland water transport in the selected communities as an aggregate of 66.7% of the respondents agree to that the users' challenges indicate that 54.6% of users’ strongly agreed to the difficulty of boat access in the study area, 50.4% of respondents strongly agreed to poor maintenance culture. the operators identified challenges include the level of financial support which is very low, 55.0% of the operators’ strongly agreed to low financial support, 50.0% of the operators strongly agreed to the high cost of maintaining boats and 50.0% of operators strongly agreed that seasonality of water level affects IWT operation in BLG area. And the implication is that it will affect the socio-economic activities of the people of Borgu local government area, and the government needs to play the stakeholder role by giving out loans to the boat operators, provision of standard boats for the easy conveyance of people and goods, regulations of the inland water transport activities and provision of safety equipment to save lives and properties of the users and operators. Doing this will enhance the socioeconomic activities of the BLGA, and the government can generate more revenue from the operation.