ABSTRACT:

Small scale industries and community development are subjects of interest and national concern in developing countries like Nigeria. As king pins in freeing the country from problem of unemployment, youth restiveness and poverty, a study of the factors impeding small scale industrial and community development is inevitable. This paper is therefore an assessment of the factors impeding small scale industrial and community development in Ibaji Local Government Area of Kogi State, Nigeria. Factors such as energy poverty/crisis, inadequate capital, poor road networks, and inadequate managerial skills were some of the factors discovered and assessed in the paper. The paper recommends that to foster development of small scale industries and communities in rural areas like Ibaji, the people must be empowered financially through provision of soft loans administered by honest men and women. Furthermore, government should speed up the construction of roads in the area, provision of electricity. Government could also pay enhanced salary structured to rural workers to serve as motivation to work in rural areas like Ibaji.