1.1 Introduction
Co-operative society is one of the principal agents of rural development. It is not only an avenue for job opportunities, but also as a training ground for the rural dwellers and other society and economic benefits. Hence, it is a strong factor in the nations economic development. The role and importance of cooperatives is one of the cooperative principle which seek to provide educational training for cooperative members, elected and representative, manager and employee, so that they can contribute effectively to the development of their cooperatives. Its importance cannot be overemphasized in cooperative development, the role and importance of cooperative education stand in the centre of the cooperative movement.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Co-operative is a vital issue in every community in this world. Place where it has been properly put into effective operation, its members have greatly achieve something from it. Nkanu Local Government area is one of the area where co-operative societies have improved the live of its citizens. Rural development according to Diejomoah (2003) is “The process of not only increasing the level of per capital income in the rural area but also the standard of living of the rural population measured by food and nutrition level, health, education, housing, recreation and security. Also Rural development according to UNO (1960) is “The process by which the effort of he people themselves are United with effort that of government authorities to improved the economic social and cultural conditions of the rural communities to integrate those community into life of the nation and to enable them contribute meaningful to national development.
According to Iedunote (2021), a cooperative society is a voluntary association that started with the aim of the service of its members. It is a form of business where individuals belonging to the same class join their hands for the promotion of their common goals. These are generally formed by poor people or weaker sections of people in society. It reflects the desire of the poor people to stand on their legs or own merit. A cooperative society is a special type of society, which is established by an economically weak person for the betterment and upliftment of their economic condition through mutual help. Many business organizations have the main motive to earn profit and also exploit customers (Iedunote, 2021).
The problem of developing the rural area has received the attention of many experts and researchers as well as the government. This is because it constitutes a serious bottleneck to the socio-economic development of the country as well as the communities. It is in the light of this, that I have decided to examine how rural areas would be developed with the help or assistance of co-operative societies using Nkanu local Government as the case study.
Helms (2005) on the other hand defines co-operative society as an association of persons who have voluntarily joined together to have a common end through the formation of a democratically controlled enterprise, making equitable contribution to the capital required and accepting a fair share of the risk and benefit of the undertaking in which the member activity participate. On the other hand it could be seen as a voluntarily association of persons having mutual ownership in providing themselves some needed service on non-profit basis usually organized as a legal entity to accomplish objectives through joint participation of its members. As it is, the problem faced by the rural dwellers in Nigeria today is complex. It is those in the rural areas who have to produce not only enough for their families but also for industries and urban population. They also have to produce cash crops either for processing by local industries or for export. Still they lack the basic necessities of life.
Therefore, in Nkanu LGA of Enugu State where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Contributions of Co-operatives toward the Provision of Educational Facilities in the Rural Areas.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation reveals that the greatest problem confronting Rural Development today is the lopsided and unbalanced development of their environment and how best to improve the living standard of the rural dwellers. It is not in correct to state that the gross unbalance and inequalities in the level of development between the rural and urban areas of Nigeria is enormous taking Nkanu LGA of Enugu State for example.
The problem of rural backwardness and under — development has remained unresolved. This is evident in the persistence of agriculture stagnation, hunger, poverty, disease, unemployment, poor housing, under-employment, poor infrastructure facilities. Most of our rural areas also suffer from inadequacy of social services, high birth rate and death rate, low life expectance, malnutrition and Ignorance, lack of productive, technical and managerial skill to improve production.
In the light of these problems, the researcher is therefore boarded and wants to probe into the activities of co-operative societies to know whether they are contributing towards the development of our rural areas with a particular focus on Nkanu LGA of Enugu State.
The researcher also intends to investigate the impact of co-operative societies on rural development by identifying the above mentioned phenomenon and to know the prospect and problems encountered by co-operative so cities in their attempt to develop the rural dwellers.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to scrutinize the Contributions of Co-operatives toward the Provision of Educational Facilities in the Rural Areas using Co-operative Societies in Nkanu LGA of Enugu State. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To identify or determine whether co-operatives societies have contributed to the development of rural areas in Nkanu Local government Area.
- To find out the financial problem areas affecting the contribution of co-operative societies to the development of Nkanu Local Government Area.
- To determine the impact of the strategies design and adopted by co-operative societies in rural development.
- To make recommendation on ways towards ensuring greater success of co-operative societies in future.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Do co-operative societies play vital role in the development of rural areas?
- Do financial problem hinder the activities of co-operative societies?
- How helpful are government and financial institutions in enhancing the activities/ roles of co-operative societies?
- Do you think co-operative societies provide infrastructures towards the development of rural areas?
- Do you consider the training of co-operative personnel important towards enhancing their performance as an instrument of development?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
- H0: There is no significant co-operative society that plays vital role in the development of rural areas in Nkanu Local Government Area
- H1: There is a significant co-operative society that plays vital role in the development of rural areas in Nkanu Local Government Area
1.7 Significance of Study
The study is a know fact that development is not confined to any particular area but all over the globe. However, this study focuses its attention on the development of rural areas through the effort of co-operative societies with reference to Nkanu Local Government Area in Enugu State. Hence the type of co-operative societies, role, prospect and problems would be looked into with particular emphasis to Nkanu Local Government Area. The Limitations of the Study among other things include time constraints, lack of enough funding and lack of access to adequate data a regards to the topic under study etc.
1.8 Scope of Study
The study focuses on the Contributions of Co-operatives toward the Provision of Educational Facilities in the Rural Areas using Alpha Pharmacy Co-operative Societies in Nkanu LGA of Enugu State.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Definition of Terms
It is important to give a brief definition of the following key terms, in order to know the meaning of the key concept and some words in the research project.
Development: According to Todarro 1977, he defines development as a many sided process involving changes in structure, institutions and attitude as well as the acceleration of economic growth, the reduction in inequality and eradication of hunger and poverty in a given society.
Rural Areas: An area, which is so backward in terms of social amenities and other materials found in urban areas.
Rural Development: Rural Development in a multi dimensional process by which productivity, income and welfare in terms of health, nutrition, education and other features of satisfactory life of rural people can be improved or transformed.
Co-Operatives: As association of persons usually of limited means who have come together to achieve a common economic goal through equitable contribution.
Directive Approach: This top-bottom approach in any rural setting is where agencies either local government, state government and federal government tries to identify the felt-need of people in the community. This approach comes in when there is lack of human and material resources, provision of technical know-how for the community development.
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