Rural Women Cooperative Societies and Poverty Reduction in Nigeria: A Study of Onicha Local Government Area, Ebonyi State

Abstract

Studies have been carried out in determining the contributions of women in developing the
economy, but critical examination of the contributions of rural cooperative societies owned by
women in poverty and hunger reduction is lacking. This study investigated the contributions of
women cooperative societies in the rural areas in alleviating poverty, with particular reference to
some selected communities in Onicha communities of Ebonyi State. The major goal of this work
is to determine the contributions of rural women cooperative societies in reducing poverty levels
at the rural communities as well as to ascertain the obstacles that confront them in their efforts.
The work equally examined ways the government could assist them. The work used survey
design and a population of 238, 609 with a sample size of 400, used structured questionnaire to
get information from the people. The generated data were analyzed using simple percentage
while Chi Square was used in testing the raised hypotheses. Findings show that the women used
their cooperative societies to contribute in poverty reduction in the rural communities. It equally
showed that there were challenges obstructing their efforts. The result equally revealed that there
are ways the government can assist the rural women cooperative societies. The study concludes
that rural women cooperative societies contribute to poverty reduction in Ebonyi State. As a
result of the above findings, the work recommends that government should grant soft loans to the
women, organize periodic training and designate experts in cooperative management to assist
them in the management of their cooperative societies.