Assessment Of The Role Of Saving And Credit Cooperatives In Improving Economic Growth Of Women Members: The Case Of Primary Saccos In Ambo District, West Shoa Zone Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the role of saving and credit cooperatives in improving economic growth of women members in Ambo district. The objective of the study to assess the contribution of saving and Credit Cooperatives in improving economic growth of women members in the study area, to examine the factors that affect saving and Credit Cooperatives in improving economic growth of women members in the study area., and to find out mechanisms to enhance the role of saving and Credit Cooperatives in improving the economic growth of women members in the study area. The researcher used 101 of respondents from selected saccos and 30 Board of directors for group discussions and 4 cooperative promoters for the purpose of interview during the period in 2022. Since the data surveyed in nature the researcher used both qualitative and quantitative approaches of mixed research to achieve the objectives of the study. The researcher used Simple random sampling technique using Kothari (2004) formula to select sample respondents of the study. For this study, descriptive statistics were used to analyze primary data to obtain the result of the study using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 25. The finding of the study has revealed that from a total of 101 women members of SACCOs were involved in the study with the response rate of 100%. Among the total respondents, majority of them were age group 31-49 years old, majority of women were at education level of grade 1-8, majority of respondent women were married and also highest number of women’s’ yearly income from agriculture were above 6001 birrs. As study result reveal that, regarding to physiological factor about Member attitude majority of respondent have regular saving according to their by law but regarding to voluntary saving, Child saving, Insurance saving and saving at the during of hardship was very low. Concerning Member Loyalty majority of respondent was not pay loan and interest of loan on time based on their agreement, the Saccos and management committee was not equally serving their members. Regarding to the economic factor, about Access and Source of Credit respondent result revealed saccos was the main source of their credit to all members but the women members of Sacco have not gotten sufficient credit when she requested for different activity to improve their economic growth. As a majority of respondent result showed that, members of Sacco does not get dividend on time according to their by law. Therefore, it can be concluded that the major challenges for women members economic growth from the perspective of members were lack of sense of ownership and their failure to follow up and control their cooperative societies’ activities, weak culture of working together through mobilizing their resources, lack of commitment of members in their economic growth, members little awareness about SACCOs, low participation of members in their SACCOs’. Thus, the researcher recommended that the government should play its role to improve the system economic growth of women in the Saccos, based on the cooperative proclamation and other rules and regulations set timely. Also, it is recommended that a study be carried out on the other factors that affect saving and Credit Cooperatives in improving the economic growth of women members especially relative to economic factors.