EVALUATION OF THE FINANCIAL INCLUSION OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES IN YEWA DIVISION, OF OGUN-STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The research examined the evaluation of financial Inclusion of agricultural cooperative societies in Yewa Division Of Ogun-State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was utilized to select one hundred and fifty (150) cooperative societies for the study. Accessibility to credit from financial institutions (formal and informal) showed that the respondents were financially excluded from all the financial markets as the majority never had access to both financial institutions and non-institutions. The results revealed agricultural cooperative societies in the study area were financially insecure as they lacked external financing and their self- financing ability was pitiable due to a poor savings attitude. The determining factors of formal credit access by the farmers’ cooperatives were distance to credit source, government interference, repayment period on credit, collateral, financial literacy, transaction costs, among others. Various identified constraints includes; sociological (inappropriate capital base, poor storage facilities and lack of trust), financial/economic (lack of patronage, lack of financial information and lack of access to formal credit) and organizational/ institutional (low member participation, inadequate education/training, irregular meetings and low attendance to meetings) to the optimal performance of agricultural cooperatives. The study therefore, recommended that there is need to encourage and enlighten members on good governance, members’ participation (financially and advices) and government support to achieve their goals. Government and NGOs should provide credit facilities for cooperatives with friendly conditions, also all other identified problems should be properly addressed.