The Nexus between Oil Activities and Small and Medium Scale Enterprises: An Experience from Eket Senatorial District of Akwa Ibom State

Abstract

This study examines the nexus between oil activities and small and medium scale enterprises with particular reference to Eket Senatorial District in Akwa Ibom State. Since the discovery of oil in Nigeria particularly in the Niger Delta, the region has been facing high rate of deforestation, gas flaring, aquatic life disturbance, air pollution and other associated problems. Petroleum discovery no doubt became a predominant source of Nigeria’s revenue and foreign exchange. It has also been playing a dominant role and occupies a strategic position in the small and medium scale entrepreneurs (SMEs). Study research design was adopted which involves the use of questionnaires, in-debt oral interview and focus group discussion. The study also adopted industrial relations theory, an ideology which binds the industrial relations system together and the body of rules created to govern actors at the work place and work community.Using Taro Yamanne formular, the study made use of 352 sample size out of 198,168 people from the three local government areas of Eket Senatorial District. Findings of this study revealed that oil activities impacted positively and adversely on the small and medium scale enterprises within which oil wells are exploited. The study recommended that government at all levels should as a matter of priority endeavor to effectively implement and enforce existing laws to control issues of environmental problems by putting necessary environmental enforcement structures in place to curb the spate of environmental pollution in Nigeria.