Determinants of Obong Victor Attah International Airport, Akwa Ibom State on the Employment Status of the Host Communities
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Arts and Humanities Open Access Journal Review Article Open Access Determinants of obong victor attah international airport, Akwa Ibom state on the employment status of the host communities Abstract Volume 3 Issue 4 - 2019 The aviation industry has a vital role to play in achieving sustainable development in Ihuoma Blossom Adindu,1 Joseph C Udoh,1 austerity nations like Africa, particularly in Nigeria. Interestingly, Africa accounts for just 2 2% of world GDP but hosts 13% of its population. As a result, GDP per capita in Africa is Raimi Morufu Olalekan 1Department of Geography and Natural Resources the lowest of the world’s regions. The general picture is one of underdevelopment, political Management, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Uyo, instability, economic volatility and pervasive poverty. While there is a major opportunity to Nigeria improve living standards, quality of life and alleviate poverty through sustained economic 2Department of Community Medicine, Environmental Health growth. This research work measured the contributions of the Obong Victor Attah Unit, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, Niger Delta University, International Airport to the social and economic life of host communities of Uruan, Okobo Wilberforce Island, Nigeria and Nsit-Atai. LGA’s in Akwa-Ibom State. Employment is one of the major parameters used in measuring these contributions. A buffer was used to demarcate the study into zones Correspondence: Raimi Morufu Olalekan, Department of and a systematic sampling technique was employed in selecting the households to be Community Medicine, Environmental Health Unit, Faculty of sampled. The sample size composed of 400 respondents and this was determined from the Clinical Sciences, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, population of the host communities using the Taro Yamane formula. Data needed for this Nigeria, Email , study was obtained from questionnaires administered to the 400 respondents. Secondary data was collected from Ibom International Airport Development Company now known as Obong Victor Attah International Airport Development Company. Data collected were Received: May 07, 2018 | Published: July 24, 2019 analysed using; percentages, charts, maps and simple linear regression statistical tools. The hypothesis formulated was tested using simple linear regression analysis, the null hypothesis which stated that airport does not significantly impact employment generation was accepted for employment. Results from the analysis revealed that 10% and 13% of the total number employed in 2013 and 2017 respectively were from the host communities. From this result it is here inferred that, Obong Victor Attah International Airport is not the major determinant of employment in the study area. It was recommended that the Government should create more employment opportunities for the host communities to improve their socio-economic well-being through the expansion of the nature-based tourist industry, which could offer not only a significant source of employment and income growth but also an effective mechanism to improve the sustainability of the environment, while also helping to protect the long-term sustainability of the tourism product in Akwa Ibom State and Nigeria in general. Keywords: employment status, sustainability, economic volatility, pervasive poverty, host communities, sustainable development, nature-based tourist industry, determinants. Introduction of 2950 jobs nationally, 2000 jobs regionally and 1425 jobs sub- regionally. However, even when the area assumed to be affected Airports typically provide direct employment across a range of is kept constant, different studies can give very different results as industries employing a mix of both skilled and unskilled workers with shown by three different studies for Manchester Airport, (1988–1993) the industry and skilled–unskilled distributions often varying across covering the same area (North West England) but with results showing airports. The reported total employment generated by an airport (the total employment as 2.5, 3.6 and 4.4–5.6 times on-site employment sum of direct, indirect and induced jobs), relative to direct employment, Hakfoort, et al.1 The large majority of airport economic impact varies widely across studies, from 1.5 to as much as 7.2 times the studies3–7 use data on airport operations, combined with survey data 1,2 number of direct jobs. Though it is most commonly between 2 and of on‐airport and off‐airport businesses and visitors. Some studies, 1 3 times the number of direct jobs. According to Hakfoort, et al, this however, have used different regression models. These studies offer ratio can change because of the geographical area assumed to be insights into the data and regression variables that help explain the affected, different patterns of economic activity at different airports, economic impact of airports. different assumptions regarding upstream and downstream industry linkages, and different base case assumptions about the counterfactual Intervista8 carried out an economic impact study of Cork airport. scenario i.e. the level of production and employment in the region in From their report, the primary tool used for estimating the economic the absence of the Airport. impact of Cork Airport was an employment survey. This was augmented by data from government and airport services. Employment 2 York Aviation, reviewing impact studies from across 25 airports, attributable to airport operations were measured by surveying found out that an average for every million workloads units’ European businesses, located at the airport site. Off-site businesses that linked airports supported total employment (direct, indirect and induced) economically to the Airport were also surveyed. A total of 59 firms Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Art Human Open Acc J. 2019;3(4):175‒188. 175 © 2019 Adindu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Copyright: Determinants of obong victor attah international airport, Akwa Ibom state on the employment status of 176 the host communities ©2019 Adindu et al. were surveyed. Businesses surveyed included; Passenger and cargo employment (000s) are Airlines 7, 33, 21, 61, and 0.1%; Airports airlines, courier/ integrators, ground handlers, government agencies, and Ground Services contributed 37, 31, 30, 97, and 0.2%. The total aircraft maintenance firms, air cargo, warehousing and logistics, car for airlines, airports and ground services were; 44, 64, 51, 159, and rental firms, hotels and airport retailers. The surveyed questionnaires 0.3%; Catalytic (tourism) contributions were; 64, 37, 29, 130, and collected information on: Type of business; Employment at the 0.2%; for the total including catalytic are 108, 101, 80, 289, and 0.5%. firm, broken down into full time, part-time and temporary; Annual These airlines operating in Nigeria, directly contributed around NGN payroll or average salary; broken down to employment by type of job; 29 billion to the Nigerian economy (GDP). The sector contributed Proportion of business related to air cargo; Expenditures on goods indirectly another NGN 17billion through the output it supports down and services and the geographic location of that expenditure. The total its supply chain. A further NGN 11 billion came from the spending of employment was presented in percentages with firms representing the employees of the airlines and their supply chains. an estimated 83% of total employment from the survey. The direct Overall, these airlines contributed over NGN 58 billion to the employment impact of Cork Airports in 2013 amounts to 1,920 economy and supported 61,000 jobs in Nigeria. The Aviation’s direct jobs, after adjusting for part-time and seasonal employment. ground-based infrastructure employed 37,000 people and supports Indirect employment was 1,650 full time job equivalents, with income through its supply chain a further 31,000 jobs. These indirectly of 70.6 million Euros providing an average of 42.80 per full time supported jobs include, for instance, construction workers building or equivalent. Survey results showed that 71% of direct jobs generated maintaining facilities at airports and other ancillary services. A further by Cork Airport were permanent full-time positions while 18% were 30,000 jobs were supported by the spending of those employed by the permanent part time positions and 11% were seasonal positions. aviation industry’s ground-based infrastructure and its supply chain. Similarly, The National Council of Applied Economic Research9 The ground-based infrastructure directly contributed NGN 29 billion assessed the impact of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport to the Nigerian economy.3 (CSIA) Mumbai, India. A primary survey of more than 4,000 In a bid to know the extent of the direct on employment and the passengers (domestic and international arrivals and departures) was direct off employment and the indirect employment of Heathrow carried out to obtain the profiles of users of airport services. Primary Airport limited on its host, Optical Economics10 undertook a survey survey of freight service providers, airlines, retailers/ concessionaries of employers and employees within the airport boundary. Field work and government operating in the airport was conducted. Data was result revealed that Heathrow employed 76,640 people who earned computed using data from