Abstract:
Saving and credit cooperatives (SACOOs) stand for the prevision of saving and credit services to
their members. The main objective of this study was to assess the role of saving and credit
cooperative society on socio-economic benefits of its members at Burayu Town government
employees SACCOS. The inclusion Criteria are the fact that it has largest number of members;
seniority; wide range of services it provides and higher credit limits. The target population of
total members of the SACCOs selected for the study is 310 out of which 104 member respondents
were selected from SACCOs by simple random sampling technique. Data were collected from
primary sources. The primary data collection instruments used include questionnaire designed
and distributed to the sample respondents and interview conducted with the management
committee and control committee of SACCOS and cooperative promotion offices of Burayu
Town. The collected data were analysed by using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.
The t-test was used to test the significance difference between members benefit before joining
and after joining the SACCOS concerning their annual income, training, Asset and loan were
significantly different between before and after joining the SACCOs. In general the t-test reveals
that role of saving and credit cooperative society on socio-economic benefits of its members in
the study has been significantly improved. However the direct employments created by SACCOs
in the study area were not good. In addition some of the respondents do not have sufficient
knowledge about SACCOs. It can be concluded that even if there were little problems and
challenges faced in the SACCOs in the study area, the role of SACCOs in socio- economic
benefit of its members was improved. It is recommended that the SACCOs and cooperative
promotion officers should raise awareness about benefits of SACCOs; training has to be
provided regularly; SACCOs have to recruit employees with relevant qualification and SACCOS
should increase access to loan facilities for members by creating linkage with financial
institutions
