COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES AS AN INSTRUMENT OF POVERTY REDUCTION THROUGH ITS INCOME REDISTRIBUTION EFFORTS IN EKITI STATE, NIGERIA
The study investigates cooperatives societies as an instrument of poverty reduction through its income redistribution efforts in Ekiti state, Nigeria, and specifically to examine the effect of cooperative savings and credit schemes on poverty reduction, and also to investigate the effect of collective pool of funds on poverty reduction among cooperative societies in Ekiti state, Nigera. The study randomly selected 100 cooperative members from 10 registered cooperative societies in Ado and Ikere Ekiti local government areas. The study employed descriptive, frequencies, percentages and simple regression analysis in analyzing the data obtained through well-structured questionnaire from the 100 respondents. The findings show that savings and credit schemes help reduce poverty as indicated by the co-efficient of 0.537 and p-value 0.000. Also, financial pooling of funds helps eliminates poverty as indicated by the coefficient and p-value of 0.569 and 0.000 respectively. The study therefore concluded that cooperative savings and credit schemes help members to get financial power and access to significant quantity of money for investment and peace of mind when they pool their funds together. The recommended empowerment and supports for the cooperative organizations from the government and the non-governmental organizations (NGO) to be more effective and efficient in their business.
Key points: Poverty reduction, Pooling of funds, savings and credit schemes.
