A SURVEY OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE GROWTH OF CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY  IN ENUGU METROPOLIS
(A CASE STUDY OF ENUGU STATE COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
1.0           Introduction                                                     
1.1   Background of the Study                                       
1.2    Statement of the Problems                           
1.3   Objective of the Study                                  
1.4   Research Hypothesis                                     
 1.5   Significance of the Study                              
   1.6   Scope and the Delimitation of the Study       
   1.7   Definition of Important Terms                     
CHAPTER TWO
2.0    Literatures Review                                               
2.1          Types of Cooperative Societies                     
2.2          The Role of Cooperative in Rural Development        
2.3          How Cooperative can Eradicate Poverty                 
CHAPTER THREE
3.0   Research Design and Methodology                  
3.1         Research Design                                         
3.2         Sources of Data                                          
3.3         Population of the study                                        
3.4         Sample size                                                       
3.5         Determination of Sample size                               
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0         Data Presentation and Analysis                     
4.1         Presentation of Responses from Questionnaire
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0    Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendation
5.1      Summary Of Findings                                           
5.2      Recommendation                                                 
5.3      Conclusion                                                          
References
Appendix
Questionnaire
CHAPTER ONE
1.0    INTRODUCTION
It is not easy to state exactly when cooperative started, what is known is that there were traces of cooperative related organization in the ancient Egypt as early as 3600BC.  There were also recorded of cooperative ideas in the ancient Greek, Roman and Chinese cultures.  During the middle ages, cooperative ideas were in the form of guilds with the aims of uniting workers to meet there common needs.  During the 13th century, the first farmers cooperative were recorded when a group of sip diary farmer made Cheese cooperatively. In the new world, early Americans also experimented with cooperative.  The colonist worked jointly on many self survival projects.
 1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
There have always been instance in the history of human society where individuals have come together to achieve certain aims in cooperative with others.  In most tribal societies, this has been  a common features. However, these common effect were usually directed at fulfilling a certain temporary need.  Organization cooperative business ventures of a mere permanent character were comparatively rare through some example can be found throughout history in the middle ages as well as in classical times.
        Form creation, man had always shown a sign of working together. The Igbo man had a proverb which buttress this more, “when a man is in difficulty, he seeks for help from another but when an animal is, it cannot turn to another. In rural areas, small farmers become increasing indebted to various money tenders.  These money lenders exploited the fact that the farmer who had loved mere or less at subsistence level was now in desperate need of money to buy supplies for the culturaion of cash crops, to buy mere modern equipment, and to pay taxes, which formerly had been collected in kind. The resulting social unrest and insecurity provided a fertile ground for ideas for a new soci1al and economic orders.  The rise and expansion of the modern cooperative movement has it roots in the far reaching economic, social and political changes which took place in Europe in the café eighteenth and all through the nineteeth century, especially the revolution and the liberation of the pleasantly from the farmer feudalistic system.
        Furthermore, of this the Enriguezwe C. G. (1986), wrote that man’s environment in cooperative is essentially for improving the existing social order, achieving mere happiness in life, bring to man mere human dignity and bring about social societies for mere attraction opportunities elsewhere.
1.2    STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS
In spite of the achievements recorded during the period under review, the organization is still today beset with some serious problems, which are hampering its growth and health development.  The main ones are as follows:
-      Lack of Finance: There exist two main sources of revenue for financing co-operative activities namely, internally generated funds of the unions and loans and grants from government and secondary financing agencies. With regard to internally generated funds the small size of the average primary  co-operative society constitutes a serious constraint on the ability of such union to generate and mobilize funds for their own subsistence.  The loans and grants provided by the state governments and their secondary financing agencies have similarly proved inadequate for the number of union in vowed. This has created a serious problem.  All previous efforts made to increase the average size of each primary co-operative organization to make it viable have not so four yielded much result.
-      Lack of Effective Leadership and Qualified Personnel: Since most of he leaders entrusted with the responsible for meaning co-operative societies have to been properly trained and exposed to modern management techniques, the unions have generally been operating under poor management, ineffective control and sometimes resulting to heavy financial losses.  The co-operative societies are therefore seldom able to compete effectively with ordinary business organizations or sustain the confidence of their members.  The situation has been
worsened by the high turn over of officials who are deserting the between its affiliated organizations, to safeguard the interest of the co-operative movement in all its forms, to promote friendly and economic relations between the co-operative organizations of the types nationally and internationally, to work fro the establishment of lasting peace and security, to protect public money invested in co-operatives in the form of grant, loans, subsides, infrastructures, to ensure that co-operative conform to government policy and do not pursue illegal objectives and to promote self help and encourage self reliance.
-      Inadequate public awareness
Lack of public awareness about the existence and usefulness of the cooperative movement of the its potentials for catering for the its potentials for catering for the welfare of members has prevented many potential members from joining the movement. More vigorous public enlightenment programmes are essential to more co-operative forward.
The recent increase in government involvement in the activities of the co-operative movement especially by way of providing funds and expertise to assist in running the various co-operative unions, through FEAP, is expected to result in increased membership of the movement.  The government involvement and encouragement development through self help, mobilizing development resources at the lower and middle income level and providing effective organizations that can attract credit as well as provide a vehicle for the implementation of government economic policies and progarmmes.
        Agricultural co-operative and credit societies, consumers co-operative, building societies and other similar organization will be encouraged and given all necessary assistance to enable them discharge their functions effectively discharge their function effectively self help with government support where necessary adopt for the promotion of co-operative societies.
        With the high rate of co-operative graduates coming out from our higher institutions nowadays, it is expected that the problem of lack of effective leadership and qualified manpower will be at its minimum in the next century, culminating in an adequate public awareness of the importance and benefits of co-operatives.
1.3    OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY  
-      Co-operative society can be defined as an autonomous association of persons united voluntary to meet their common united voluntarily to meet their common economic social and cultural needs and aspiration, social and cultural owned and aspiration through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprises.  The following are the objectives of co-operative organizations in the country, such as follows, to maintain good relations justice to all.
-              In spite of these favourable conditions the co-operative movement would scarcely have had the upsurge and astonishingly fast growing if it has not been for a group of dedicated philanthropists, politicians, churchmen and civil servants who promoted co-operative by instilling general enthusiasm for its ideals or by showing the way through practical examples.
-      Though the result especially from the philanthropists, were sometimes hard to discern, their ideas still served as inspiration for some or time to come.
1.4    RESEARCH QUESTIONS  
1.     Do corporative society encounter any problems?
2.     In what ways can be problems be solved?
3.     What are the causes of the problems?
4.     Is there any ways corporative society can be affected in their growth of development?
5.     In what ways can the problems hindered the growth of cooperative society?
1.5    SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY  
A co-operative is ;a plan humanic business organization formed by individual who are desirous of pooling themselves and their resource together to form a democratically controlled organization devoid of pecuniary gain.  The uniqueness of co-operative are its flexibility permits it to be practiced among; farmers, fishermen, Artisans, industrial and commercial works, drivers, students, marketmen and women etc.
        Membership of co-operative cut across men and women the poor and the rich, the bourgeois and the preliterate’s, producers, and consumers, the literate and illiterates, the mighty and the low.  Cooperative  may be defined as a voluntary association of persons grapping with the same socio-economic problems, and legally constituted, to ensure the common needs of its members democratically, providing services at cost or and sharing benefit in proportion to use.
        Let us briefly elaborate on each of these characteristics such as follows;
        A cooperative is open to patrons only.  A patron is one who make use of services being offered thus, some one who is likely to take loans is a potential patron of a credit co-operative society and a former is a likely patron of a produce marketing society. In this context, a patron is to distinguished from a mere “investor” who buys shares in a business is expectations of profits but who may never patronize the product of that enterprises.  A co-operative is open to patrons only, conversely no potential patron in its area of operation should be barred from membership for petty reasons like ethnicism, party policies, sex or social class.  No body can be compelled to join a cooperative.  Co-operative are voluntary, non government organizations.  People join co-operative only if they perceive that cooperative can render their needed series.  Co-operative must be legally constituted and incorporated.  They must be registered with the government.  Registration makes a cooperative a legal entity distinct from its members able to own properly, to sue in court for damages or breach of contract and to be sued for it.  Until a society is registered, it can only be a pre-cooperative.
1.7    DEFINITION OF IMPORTANT TERMS
The term cooperative can be used in its generic term to cover a wide area of activities which two or more people join together either formerly or in formerly on adhoc or permanent basis, for legal or illegal or socially accepted or unaccepted action  to fulfill certain aims.
        Such actions may be selfish in nature or may be in the interest of those performing the action without it being detrimental to any one else.
        However, cooperative is often used in the positive sense.  It is also used in a much narrower sense to mean activities undertaken by cooperative organizations. Put simply, therefore, cooperative society can be refers as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspiration through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise.
Agricultural Co-operatives: There are societies which
Embrace all classes of people earning a livelihood on the hand ranging from the former who rents some plots of across to the peasant family which works its own holding with its own labor.
Artisanal Co-operatives: These are co-operative formed
by skilled workers employing themselves and perhaps a few journey men and apprentice in handicrafts or related branches of trade.
Marketing Co-operatives: These are co-operative
established to market the agricultural produce of the members. Usually formed by great quantity producer who are faced with the problem of selling their produce to distance market at favourable returns.
Consumer Co-operatives: They are co-operatives which
embrace people whose standard of living depends mainly or entirely on the purchasing power of wages, salaries, or pensions, put the other way, the great mass of industrial and clerical workers and the urban population.
Fishery Co-operatives: These are societies for those
Whose livelihood is gained by off shared or deep see fishery or fishing.  They are the counterpart of agricultural co-operatives.