Revitalizing Infrastructure for Rural Growth and Sustainable Development

Abstract

The development of extensive and effective programs and processes for rural growth and sustainable development has been viewed as a factor for economic development. This is said to be enhanced through the provision and availability of technical and critical infrastructures on which the Small and Medium Manufacturing Enterprises (SMMEs) thrived positively.  The SMMEs represents agents of economic transformation to the society on wealth and employment creation, thus representing well over 90% of all manufacturing enterprises in the world. However, it is also a common occurrence that every year many of these small firms are forced to close their doors. Most of the SMMES do prefer the urban centres due to the availability of some critical infrastructure and there exist dearth of technical and critical infrastructures for Manufacturing and technology development in the rural areas.  This paper provides an insight towards the sustainability of SMMEs activities in Nigeria especially in the areas of manufacturing development and Rural growth, owing to the vast natural raw materials available, with the discussion anchoring around local manufacturers which has not been really encouraged in meeting the desired aims of trade and investment liberation, a major source of export via the concept of the provision, sustenance and maintenance of critical and technical infrastructures as part of the strategy.

Keywords: Infrastructure, rural development, sustainable development, SMEs, maintenance management, Nigeria