Journal of African Development

This study explores the relationship between workforce skill development and logistics cost optimization, using descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis to understand key operational drivers. The findings reveal that error reduction emerges as the most influential factor in improving logistics efficiency, highlighting its critical role in minimizing costs and enhancing overall performance. Factors such as inventory cost management, productivity, and technical and operational skills demonstrate moderate significance, indicating that they contribute meaningfully to operational effectiveness, though not as strongly as error control. In contrast, demographic variables such as educational qualification and gender show minimal influence on logistics performance outcomes. Further analysis using chi-square tests confirms that there is no statistically significant association between gender and key operational variables, including error reduction, rework minimization, process accuracy, compliance, and quality control. Although quality control showed a marginal likelihood ratio significance, it was not supported by the Pearson test, reinforcing the overall conclusion of independence. The study also acknowledges certain limitations in the statistical analysis, particularly due to small expected frequencies in some categories, which may affect the robustness of the chi-square results. Overall, the research emphasizes that operational efficiency in logistics is primarily driven by process-oriented factors, especially error reduction, rather than demographic characteristics, offering valuable insights for organizations aiming to optimize costs through skill development initiatives