ABSTRACT

The study was carried out to determine the role of community-based microcredit financing organizations to small scale entrepreneurship development in Ekiti State. A survey research design was adopted for the study. Five research questions were developed and answered in line with the purpose of the study. Five null hypotheses were formulated and tested at the probability of 0.05 level of significance. A structured questionnaire was developed from the related literature reviewed for the study. The questionnaire was face validated by three experts. The questionnaire was tested for reliability using the Cronbach alpha method and the result showed a coefficient of 0.88. Copies of the questionnaire were administered on 228 respondents. The data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and z-test statistics to test the null hypotheses. The major findings of this study indicated that community-based microcredit financing organizations in 12 ways help small scale entrepreneurs to raise seed money for development, in 6 ways help to mobilize savings among small scale entrepreneurs for development, in 10 ways granted loans to small scale entrepreneurs, in 10 ways help to enhance the income of small scale entrepreneurs for development and in 10 ways help to alleviate poverty among small scale entrepreneurs in Ekiti State. The result of null hypotheses tested revealed that there was no significant difference between the mean responses of male and female entrepreneurs on the extent community-based microcredit financing organizations help to raise seed money of small scale entrepreneurs for development and on the extent community-based microcredit financing organizations help to mobilize savings among small scale entrepreneurs for development. The result also revealed that there was no significant difference between the mean responses of urban and rural entrepreneurs on the extent loans granted by micro-credit financing organizations to small scale entrepreneurs lead to their development, on the extent community-based micro-credit financing organizations help to enhance the income of small scale entrepreneurs for development and on the extent community-based microcredit financing organizations help to alleviate poverty among small scale entrepreneurs in Ekiti State. It was recommended that the Credit and thrift societies should sensitize people in the community about the roles and functions of community-based micro credit financing organization to small scale entrepreneurship development. Suggestions were made for further studies.