CONTRIBUTIONS OF WOMEN COOPERATIVES TO WOMEN’S ACCESS TO CREDIT IN NIGERIA (A CAST STUDY OF SELECTED WOMEN COOPERATIVES IN UMUAHIA NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA)
ABSTRACT
This research work was undertaken to examine and analyzed the contribution of women cooperative to women’s access to credit in Nigeria in a selected woman cooperative in Umuahia North L.G.A. In this work, a sample of two distinctive cooperative which involve themselves in carrying out some activities such as farming, processing, marketing production of loan and women access to credit activities in the economy were studied farmers multipurpose cooperative societies. This work covered a period of six years from 2002 to 2008. The data were mainly collected through field survey with questionnaire and personal interview directed to respective societies, the researcher also used secondary data to source for the information used. The researcher finding revealed the contribution of women cooperative to women’s access to credit in Nigeria through numerous activities in which they engage in, but it was also revealed that there are some clung in the wheel of their progress. These ranged from erratic changes in government policies and programs, poor funding in promotional effort, lack of access to credit, insufficient cooperative education and awareness to inadequate capital mobilization by societies. Based on the finding of the researcher some recommendation were made on how to panacea and eradicate this in carrying out their economic activities towards women contribution and access to credit to the financial institution in Nigeria.