THE RELEVANT OF MICRO-FINANCE COOPERATIVE ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT A CASE STUDY OF IMO STATE COOPERATIVE FINANCE ASSOCIATION LIMITED ISCFA

posted on November 28, 2019

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

It has been estimated that there are 500 million economically active poor people in the world operating small scale and medium businesses. Most of them do not have access to adequate financial services.

Microfinance services are financial services that poor people can qualify for. More broadly, it refers to a movement in which as many poor and near-poor household as possible have permanent access to.

Theoretically, microfinance encompasses any financial service used by poor people including those they access in the informal economy, such as loans, from a village money lender. In practice, however, the term is usually only used to refer to institutive and enterprises whose goods include both finance and empowerment of the poor.

The concept of the credit union was developed by Friedrich W. Raiffeisen and his supporters. Their altruistic action was motivated by concern to assist the rural population to break out of their dependence on money lenders and to improve their welfare.

Although much progress has been made, the problem has not been solved yet, and the overwhelming majority of people who earn less especially in rural areas, they lack access to formal financial leverage.

The concept of modern microfinance was developed in 2004 by consultative group to assist the poor (CGAP) and endorsed by the group of eight leaders at the G8 Summit on June 10^th 2004.

(Christian, Robert Peck, Jayadeva, Vena and Rosenbery. Financial institutions with a double bottom line, consultative group to assist the poor from encyclopedia Washington 2004). The practical of microfinance in Nigeria is culturally rooted and dates back to several centuries.

They are mainly of the informal self – help group (SHGs). Rotating savings and credit Association (ROSCAS), savings collectors and cooperative thrift savings societies.

These informal financial institutions generally have limited resources to meet up with the demand. In order to enhance the flow of financial service to Nigerian rural areas, government has in the past initiated a series of publicly financed micro/rural credit programmes and policies targeted at the poor.

Notable among such programmes were the rural Banking programme, Agricultural credit guarantee Selene Fund (AGSF) Nigeria Agric Agricultural Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (NACROB) Nigeria Directorate of employment (NDE), Community Bank (CBS) and family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP)

In 2000, the federal government merged the NACB, PBN and FEAP to form the Nigeria Agricultural cooperative and Rural Development Bank Limited (NACRDB) to enhance the provision of finance to the agricultural and cooperative sectors. It also created the National poverty eradication programme (NAPEP) with the mandate to provide material and equipment training.

Though these services have made several impacts in the economy, their activities were short lived due to the unsustainable nature of the programme.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Microfinance has evolved as an economic development approach intended to benefit low income businesses.

Most small and medium businesses do not have access to funds, yet microfinance scheme is created to meet sustained demand in the management of microfinance, and such problems are identified as following:

Some microfinance institutions target a segment of the population that has no access to business opportunities.
Poor management constraint of some microfinance scheme.