Needs Assessment Survey of Communities in Andoni and Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Areas in Rivers State, Nigeria

The purpose of this study was to conduct extensive needs assessment survey of communities in Andoni and Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Areas in Rivers State, Nigeria with emphasis on their real needs, felt needs in their order of priority and the possible intervention strategies. The population for this study consisted of five respondents drawn from each community in the two Local Government Areas. Adult women and men and youth indigenes of the communities investigated constituted the population for the study. The sample size of 23 communities is the representation of 30% of 50 identified communities in Andoni and Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Areas. The sample size of 230 respondents (that is 10 persons from each community) was used for this study. Stratified simple random sampling method was used to select the sample size. The stratification was on the basis of adult women and men and youth citizens of the communities. Community Needs Assessment Rating Scale (CoNARS) was developed and used for data collection for this study. Descriptive analysis technique was adopted to analyze the data and frequency scores of respondents’ responses were extracted and used in the analysis in order to answer the research questions and presented as the results of the study. The symbol I represents the Community Needs while the symbol O represents the Community Non-Needs. It was discovered that most of the communities investigated were faced with the following needs: transportation, ecological, economic empowerment, unemployment, poverty, agriculture, skills acquisition, social welfare, security problems, embankment and shore protection, tourism centre, rural water supply, road construction, education, eradication of illiteracy, rural housing scheme, mobile clinic and landing jetty. Effort should be intensified by the Federal Government of Nigeria, Rivers State Government and Local Government Councils, NGOs within and outside Nigeria and the donor-agencies such as UNESCO, NEPAD, IFAD, WHO, foreign countries etc., to come to the aid of the communities. Key Words: Need Assessment, Kaufman’s Needs Assessment Model, Coffing’s Client Needs Assessment Model, real needs, felt-needs, Rural Development, socio-economic and political lif