Abstract

Service activities now account for the largest share of output and urban employment in Nigeria, yet their spatial organisation within the fast-growing cities of the South South geopolitical zone remains poorly documented. This study examines how urban growth dynamics shape business location decisions and, through them, the changing geography of service employment in six state capitals and commercial centres of the zone: Port Harcourt, Benin City, Warri, Uyo, Calabar and Yenagoa. Three objectives guided the study: to examine the pattern of urban growth and its relationship with the spatial distribution of service establishments; to identify the factors influencing the location decisions of service businesses; and to assess the changes in the spatial distribution of service employment between the urban core and the periphery. A cross sectional survey design was adopted. A structured questionnaire was administered to 400 owners and managers of service establishments selected through multistage and stratified random sampling, complemented by field observation and secondary data. Data were analysed using frequency counts and simple percentages and presented in tables. Findings indicate that about two thirds of service establishments were set up within the last ten years and that new firms locate increasingly in peripheral and corridor locations rather than in traditional central business districts. Accessibility to customers, cost of land and rent, security, and availability of electricity and road infrastructure were the leading location factors. A majority of respondents reported relocating or opening branches away from congested cores, signalling a shift toward a polycentric and corridor based geography of service employment. The study concludes that service employment in the region is decentralising faster than planning frameworks are adapting. It recommends updated master plans, planned secondary business centres, infrastructure-led corridor development, improved security and land-administration reforms that formalise peripheral service clusters.