COOPERATIVE-LED MICROFINANCE BANKING: A CASE STUDY OF AL HAYAT MFB IN IJEBU-ODE, NIGERIA
Keywords:
Cooperative banking, Microfinance, Financial accessibility, Community economic participationAbstract
The study aimed at analysing the cooperative-led microfinance banking: a case study of Al Hayat MFB in Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria. The study examined the level of financial inclusion of small scale business operators and impact of cooperative oriented microfinance banking on economic participation in the community of the study area. The study was a product of the growing debates on the developmental effectiveness, sustainability, and inclusiveness of cooperative financial institutions in the changing microfinance landscape in Nigeria. The research adopted a quantitative research approach with positivism as the basis that the primary data were collected across a sectional survey from 207 respondents namely cooperative members, customers, staff members and small scale business operators who are affiliated to the institution. Descriptive statistics, simple linear regression analysis and Pearson Product Moment correlation analysis were used to analyze the data. The results showed that cooperative led microfinance banking has a positive and significant influence on financial accessibility, which was indicated by the value of the regression coefficient of 0.684 and the coefficient of determination of 0.412. The study also showed that there was a strong positive correlation between cooperative banking mechanisms and community based economic participation, with a correlation coefficient value of 0.711 at a 0.05 significance level. The study concluded that cooperative microfinance institutions were still relevant financial tools for the development of inclusive finance in the semi urban space of Nigeria, as well as enterprise development at the grassroots and localised economic participation. The study identified the need to enhance the institutional supports in Nigeria, particularly on the aspects of the cooperative financial system, technological modernisation, and regulatory coordination.
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