HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICE DELIVERY IN EBONYI STATE:: A STUDY OF SELECTED LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

Abstract

This work titled Human Capital Development and Local Government Service Delivery in Ebonyi State: A Study of Selected Local Governments was undertaken based on the poor performance of local government in Nigeria despite several efforts made by the successive governments to make the third tier effective and efficient. The broad objective of the study is to assess human capital development and local government service delivery at the grassroots in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey design, simple random stratification technique was adopted; three hundred and fifty (350) sample size was drawn from the total population of 994.412 using Taro Yemane formula (1967) and Bowley’s proportional allocation was utilized. Human capital theory propounded by Schultz in (1993) was adopted as a framework of analysis. The study revealed the following to include: that the available trained manpower has not significantly improved healthcare delivery, that trained manpower has not been properly used to sustained education, that the method of training manpower has influenced agriculture at the local government level and the trained social workers has not been adequate to improve social welfare at the local government level in Ebonyi State. Arising from the findings, the study recommended the following: That adequate provision for the training of the staff, that those that have undergone training should be placed at the proper place of the skills, that competent firm should be engaged for the training of staff and the 10% recommended to be set aside for the training of staff should implement to encourage training and development of manpower at the local government level in Ebonyi State. The implication of not properly engaged the manpower in effective training and poor utilization of the trained ones has contributed to undermined the performance of local government, therefore, if there an effective measures put in place to engage in manpower training and proper utilization of the trained manpower, the service delivery at the local government level will surely improve.