COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN BAYELSA AND RIVERS STATE

The study examined cooperative society and its impact on Bayelsa and Rivers State community development. The central objective of the study is to examine how cooperative society helps to bring about community development in Bayelsa and River State. Four research questions were formulated in line with the objectives. The study employed a research survey method, using qualitative and quantitative designs that used primary and secondary sources for data collection and analysis. Six thousand (6,000) respondents from twelve selected local government areas of Bayelsa and Rivers State were used as the sample size. The structured questionnaires were administered to six thousand (6,000) respondents, of which five thousand nine hundred and ninety-five (5,995) were retrieved for data analysis. Four (4) point Likert scale for research questionnaires using grand mean for analysis. The findings revealed that lack of awareness and orientation about cooperative societies in rurality; poor working conditions of staff of the cooperative societies; excessive government policy and control of cooperative societies; and others are factors that bedeviling the growth of cooperative societies in Bayelsa and Rivers State. In this light, the study recommended amongst others that there should be provision for training and retraining programmes for the illiterate and unexperienced members and others by organizing workshops, seminars, and courses for skills acquisition programmes to meet the modern trends of innovations and technological advancement; any cooperative leader involved in corrupt practice should be disciplined according to the laws no matter whose ox is gored, to serve as a deterrence to others to entrench transparency, accountability, probity .and honesty in the management of cooperative societies.