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ABSTRACT
This study examined “the role of co-operative societies in rural development, a survey of Oyigbo Local Government Area, Rivers State”. The research design employed in this study is the descriptive design. The population of the study is 160 while the sample size is 144. From the findings, it was revealed from the hypothesis tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. It was revealed from the study that Co-operative societies play significant role in the development of rural areas. From the findings, conclusion were drawn and it was recommended among others that immediate review of the co-operative law in line with the co-operative development policy that would re-position the Director of cooperative, service was suggested.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page – – – – – – – – – – i
Certification – – – – – – – – – ii
Dedication – – – – – – – – – – iii
Acknowledgement – – – – – – – – iv
Abstract – – – – – – – – – – v
Table of Contents – – – – – – – – vi
Chapter One
Introduction
1.1 Background Of The Study – – – – – – 1
1.2 Statement Of The Problem – – – – – – 3
1.3 Objective Of The Study – – – – – – – 4
1.4 Significance Of The Study – – – – – – 5
1.5 Research Questions – – – – – – – 5
1.6 Research Hypothesis – – – – – – – 6
1.7 Scope Of The Study – – – – – – – 6
1.8 Limitation Of The Study – – – – – – 7
1.9 Definition Of Terms – – – – – – – 7
Chapter Two
Review of Related Literature
2.1 Introduction – – – – – – – – 10
2.2 Conceptual framework – – – – – – 10
2.2.1 Meaning Of Co-operative Society – – – – – 15
2.2.2 Characteristics Of Co-operative Societies – – – 16
2.2.3 Formation Of A Co-operative Society – – – – 19
2.2.4 Types Of Co-operative Societies – – – – – 20
2.2.5 Advantages Of Co-operative Societies – – – – 22
2.2.6 Prospect Of Co-operative Societies – – – – 24
2.2.7 The Impact Of Co-operative Societies On Rural
Development – – – – – – – – 25
2.2.8 Problems Faced By Co-operative Societies In Rural
Development – – – – – – – – 28
2.2.9 The Need For Re-engineering Co-operative Societies – 33
2.3 Theoretical Review – – – – – – – 34
2.4 Empirical Review – – – – – – – 39
2.4.1 A Study on co-operative societies, Poverty Reduction And
Sustainable Development in Nigeria – – – – 39
2.4.2 The Role of Co-operative Societies Towards Development of
Rural Areas – – – – – – – – 40
2.5 Summary of Literature Review – – – – – 40
Chapter Three
Research Methodology
3.1 Introduction – – – – – – – – 41
3.2 Research Design – – – – – – – – 41
3.3 Area Of Study – – – – – – – – 42
3.4 Population Of the Study – – – – – – 42
3.5 Sample Size And Sampling Techniques – – – – 42
3.6 Sources Of Data Collection – – – – – – 43
3.7 Data analysis technique(s) – – – – – – 44
Chapter Four
Data Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation
4.1 Introduction – – – – – – – – 45
4.2 Data Analysis – – – – – – – – 45
4.3 Hypothesis Testing – – – – – – – 52
4.4 Discussion of Findings – – – – – – – 54
Chapter Five
Summary, Conclusions And Recommendations
5.1 Introduction – – – – – – – – 57
5.2 Summary – – – – – – – – – 57
5.3 Conclusions – – – – – – – – 59
5.4 Recommendations – – – – – – – 60
References – – – – – – – – – 62
Appendix I – – – – – – – – – 64
Appendix II – – – – – – – – 65
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Co-operation is as old as man’s history. In the days of cave men, when men were looked at as being ignorant, yet co-operation existed among and between those ancient men. Co-operation stems from unity and understanding. It is the brainchild of good neighborliness. A co-operative society is a form of voluntary, self-help business endeavour in which individuals, sole proprietors, traders or producers unite to foster their group interest. Individual members pool their resources for profitable investment and efficient management of corporative business enterprises.
Helms (2005) defines co-operative society as an association of persons who have voluntarily joined together to have a common end through the formation of a democratically controlled enterprise, making equitable contribution to the capital required and accepting a fair share of the risk and benefit of the undertaking in which the member activity participate. On the other hand it could be seen as a voluntarily association of persons having mutual ownership in providing themselves some needed service on non-profit basis usually organized as a legal entity to accomplish objectives through joint participation of its members.
Some of the problems confronting co-operative societies include: Illiteracy, Poor management, Lack of adequate capital, Down word trend in economy, Lack of accountability, Lack of co-operation, Lack of commitment, Inadequate collateral for loans, Disagreements, Dishonesty/fraud.
Despite the threats to weakness of co-operative organization in Nigeria and elsewhere, they have recorded commendable achievements and contributed in various ways to the socio-economic development of Nigeria.
Be it in Africa, Asia, Europe, America, South America or any other continents, co-operative societies have helped significantly in encouraging socio-economic changes which have enhanced the overall well-being and standard of living of their members and other individuals in the nations of operations. This accounts for the reasons why various nations commit substantial financial and material resources to equip, encourage and develop co-operative societies.
The identifiable areas where co-operative societies have made contributions to the socio-economic development of Nigeria, include: Creation of Job, Mobilisation of Rural Savings, Technological Transfer of Agricultural Innovations, Production and Marketing of Agricultural Products, Control of Inflationary Trend, Making educational facilities available etc.
The problem of developing the rural area has received the attention of many experts and researchers as well as the government. This is because it constitutes a serious bottleneck to the socio-economic development of the country as well as the communities. It is in the light of this that I have decided to examine how rural areas would be developed with the help or assistance of co-operative societies using Oyigbo local Government as the case study.
In general, the present study examines the role of co-operative societies in Rural Development with Oyigbo LGA as rural map.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Perhaps, one of the greatest problems confronting Rural Development today is the loop sided and unbalanced development of their environment and how best to improve the living standard of the rural dwellers. It is not correct to state that the gross imbalance and inequalities in the level of development between the rural and urban areas of Nigeria is enormous taking Oyigbo local government area for example. Inspite of all the orchestrated policies and programmes of successive government in Nigeria, the problem of rural backwardness and under – development has remained unresolved. This is evident in the persistence of agriculture stagnation, hunger, poverty, disease, unemployment, poor housing, under-employment, poor infrastructure facilities. Most of our rural areas also suffer from inadequacy of social services, high birth rate and death rate, low life expectance, malnutrition and Ignorance, lack of productive, technical and managerial skill to improve production.
Co-operation is far closely involved in economic and poltical life of any politico-economic system in which it exists. Each co-operative organization, be it a primary society, a co-operative union, federation or wholesale society, participates in one way or another not only in the economic life but also activity or at least, passive in the political development of the society system.
In the light of these problems, the researcher therefore examine the activities of co-operative societies to know whether they are contributing towards economic growth with a particular focus on Oyigbo Local government area of Rivers State.
The researcher also intends to investigate the impact of co-operative societies on rural development by identifying the above mentioned phenomenon and to know the prospect and problems encountered by co-operative societies in their attempt to develop the rural dwellers.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main purpose of this study is to examine the role of co-operative societies in rural development. Specific objectives include:
- To identify or determine whether co-operatives societies have contributed to the development of rural areas in Oyigbo Local government Area.
- To find out the financial problem areas affecting the contribution of co-operative societies to the development of Oyigbo Local Government Area.
- To determine the impact of the strategies designed and adopted by co-operative societies in rural development.
- Make recommendations on ways towards ensuring greater success of co-operative societies in future.
- To ascertain the contributions of co-operative societies to the socio-economic development of Nigeria.
1.4 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study will be of significant benefits as it help in educating the farmers and the entire rural dwellers on the importance of co-operative societies.
It will be of great significance to the general public as a lot of knowledge on the importance of co-operative societies will be discussed in the study. It will also help discover some problems of co-operative societies and provide recommendation to the problems identified.
The study will also be significant to future researchers as it will serve as a reference material.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following questions are to guide the researcher towards finding out the solutions related to the problems, objective and the question of research.
- Do co-operative societies play vital role in the development of rural areas?
- Do financial problems hinder the activities of co-operative societies.
- How helpful are government and financial institutions in enhancing the activities/roles of co-operative societies?
- Do you think co-operative societies provide infrastructures towards the development of rural areas?
- Do you consider the training of c-operative personnel important towards enhancing their performance as an instrument of development?
- What are the contributions of co-operative societies to the socio-economic development of Nigeria?
1.6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
Ho: Co-operative societies do not play any significant role in the development of rural areas
H1: Co-operative societies play significant role in the development of rural areas
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
It is a known fact that development is not confined to any particular area but all over the globe.
However, this study focuses its attention on the development of rural areas through the effort of co-operative societies with reference to Oyigbo Local Government Area in Rivers State. Hence the type of co-operative societies, role, prospect and problems would be looked into with particular emphasis to Oyigbo Local Government Area.
1.8 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Success as it is often said cannot be attained on a platter of gold. In the course of this research work, problems were encountered.
- Time: Carrying out a good research requires a lot of concentration on and time. Due to the short time allowed for this work coupled with the academic work at the same period made it practically impossible to reach out to the factors that affect student performance in shorthand for relevant information for detail research work.
- Finance: Inadequate finances to travel out also restricted the research to the company under study. This affected the wide coverage needed ft)r a comprehensive study of this nature.
1.9 DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS
It is important to give a brief definition of the following key terms, in order to know the meaning of the key concept and some words in the research project.
- DEVELOPMENT: According to Todarro 1977, he defines development as a many sided process involving changes in structure, institutions and attitude as well as the acceleration of economic growth, the reduction in inequality and eradication of hunger and poverty in a given society.
- RURAL AREAS: An area, which is so backward in terms of social amenities and other materials found in urban areas.
- RURAL DEVELOPMENT: Rural Development in a multi dimensional process by which productivity, income and welfare in terms of health, nutrition, education and other features of satisfactory life of rural people can be improved or transformed.
- CO-OPERATIVES: As association of persons usually of limited means who have come together to achieve a common economic goal through equitable contribution.
- DIRECTIVE APPROACH: This top-bottom approach in any rural setting is where agencies either local government, state government and federal government tries to identify the felt-need of people in the community. This approach comes in when there is lack of human and material resources, provision of technical know-how for the community development. Introduction of new method in education, weaving modern system of farming for rural people.
- NON-DIRECTIVE APPROACH: The people of the community identify their own felt – need i.e. their duty to plan for action and also implement it. Government/ Philanthropists do not come in but they can seek advice in terms of technicality. It is usually applied to developed society or rural areas that have adequate human, material resources.
- MID-WAY APPROACH: This is a situation where by the people of the community and the agencies identify their own felt –needs by providing human and material resources. More emphasis is given to the people. This approach is applied to both primitive and developed societies or communities.
- FELT-NEEDS: Isaac 2005 citing Onyishi defined felt-needs as those tangible and intangible things the community or group require as essential to its survival as an organic whole. Without those this, the community or group may disintegrate or remain stagnant. Such things vary from society to society and as such they are better identified by the society itself.