Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
The thrift and credit co-operative is the earliest of co-operatives to have been formed worldwide including Nigeria (Godly & Wilfred, 2011). Before the advent of the modern co-operative thrift and credit society which began in England in 1844 during the industrial revolution when workers all over Europe lived in great misery there has been traditional contribution societies in Nigeria. They were variously named by the people, The Yorubas called it “Ajo”, Hausas called it “Adashi” while the Igbos called it “Isusu”s (Oseni, Ogunniyi, & Sanni, 2012). Co-operatives are open without social, political, religious and gender discrimination to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership and membership in co-operative is voluntary (Yebisi, 2014). It is a business voluntarily organized, operating at cost which is owned, capitalized and controlled by member patron as users, sharing risks and benefits proportional to their participation (Kareem, Arigbabu, Akintaro, & Badmus, 2012).
In a society where loan acquisition is difficult and individuals are hardly able to meet the requirement of the financial institutions to obtain loan, cooperative helps their members enhance their business operations by providing loans to them at low interest rate, giving them access to credit facilities, extension and advisory services, providing them infrastructure for carrying out business activities and helps the members to save in order to raise enough capital for starting and expanding their businesses. Through the savings, there will be capital accumulation heading to investment, hence economic growth and ultimate enhancement of members business. By their nature, cooperative organization serves as an effective community development vehicle used in building economic self-reliance and civil society by creating opportunities like small business, building family homes and educating their children (Muhammad, 2014). Cooperative are formed to meet peoples’ mutual need. Based on the powerful idea that together, a group of people can achieve goals that none of them could achieve alone (Dogarawa, 2005).
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Cooperative development is hindered by some factors which results to poor development of the society in the economic growth of the country, these factors resulted in poor management of the enterprise because of the personnel involved in the project. The poor managerial skill and lack of knowledge leads to the stunt growth of the development of cooperative societies. Also the problem of cooperative development is as a result of dishonesty among the leadership, many cases involving embezzlement of fund among cooperative practitioners due to irregularities in the account statement of the cooperative society thus affects the development of cooperative societies. Also, the time it takes to process and validate information and other activities involved in the CTCS is a major challenge of the society. Therefore this study aim to analyze, design and develop a robust cooperative thrift and credit society application for managing the operations of CTCS and to find out the extent to which an automated CTCS can help to alleviate the problems that are associated with the manual system of managing a CTCS.
1.3 Aim and Objectives
The aim of this study is to develop a cooperative thrift and credit society application for managing the operations of the CTCS by designing a web portal with the following objectives in mind. Credit Society System
- Develop an online membership registration for CTCS.
- Develop a comprehensive loan application and approval as well as management of cooperative loan.
- Establish robust cooperative investment and dividend platform for the benefit of members. Credit Society System
1.4 Significance of the Study
The proposed system will give room for a fast effective and reliable information processing, high level accuracy in the financial dealings of the cooperative society such as loan application and disbursement of funds, cooperative investment and dividend sharing. Effective and prompt accessibility to members without delay, through this, members will have access to information such as new policies, regulations and meetings via Short Message Service (SMS) notifications and Electronic Mail (e-mail) alerts. Effective and prompt cooperative society information management. Cooperative Thrift, Credit Society System
1.5 Scope and Limitations of the Study
The scope of the study covers the automation of the operations of a cooperative thrift and credit society such as online registration, online loan application, special target savings, dividend sharing, savings withdrawal application, membership withdrawal application with SMS alert and email notification to members but the proposed system will not be connected to an actual payroll system and online payment by members will not be implemented i.e the electronic means of payment. Cooperative Thrift, Credit Society System
