Sacco financial services and development of members’ enterprises in Masaka town

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out the impact of SACCOs financial services and development of member enterprises and Masaka Town as a case study. The study was based on three specific objectives, that is, to assess the relationship between saving services and growth of members’ enterprises, to establish the relationship between credit services and growth of members’ enterprises and to establish the relationship between financial advisory services and the growth of members’ enterprises. Therefore to achieve these objectives, the study adopted a cross sectional, correlational and survey research designs. Data were analyzed by use of statistical methods that is descriptive and correlation analyses. The findings revealed that SACCO financial services have a strong impact on the growth of members’ enterprises, results indicated that saving services were highly favorable to the growth of members’ enterprises and there was a strong positive and significant relationship between SACCO saving financial services and the growth of members’ enterprises with (r = 0.626, P value 0.000). Result also indicated SACCO credit financial serves were also highly favorable to the growth of members’ enterprises and there was a strong positive and significant relationship between SACCO credit services and growth of members’ enterprises with (r = 0.879, P value 0.000). Findings on the relationship between SACCO advisory financial services and growth of member enterprises indicated that there was a strong positive and significant relationship of (r = 0.817, P value 0.000). It was further concluded that SACCO’s financial services significantly lead to the growth of members’ enterprises and recommendations were that SACCO members should avoid borrowing more than what their businesses need as this may led to over capital gearing which always hinders growth as it worsens the gearing level of the business and SACCO managers should sensitize and train members on how to access, use and save money to cater for future needs/ demands of their businesses to enhance growth of members’ enterprises.