UMURENGE SAVINGS AND CREDIT COOPERATIVES AS BUILDING BLOCKS FOR SOCIAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL AREA IN RWANDA. CASE STUDY: MUSAMBIRA SECTOR IN KAMONYI DISTRICT (2021 – 2023)

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the contribution of Umurenge SACCO services to the social economic development of rural area in Rwanda, focusing on services delivery by SACCO MBONEZISONGA MUSAMBIRA in Musambira sector, Kamonyi district from 2021 to 2023. The specific objectives of the study were to analyze the effectiveness of financial services offered by Umurenge SACCO to rural population in Musambira sector and to examine the contribution of Umurenge SACCO’ services on social economic development of rural population in Musambira sector. The results shows that Regarding to the effectiveness of services delivered by SACCO MBONEZISONGA MUSAMBIRA, respondents confirmed that saving services at SACCO MBONEZISONGA MUSAMBIRA are; Opening and running of savings accounts, procedures for opening a saving account are friendly, amount needed for opening an account is affordable and saving terms are flexible enough to encourage everybody to save. The findings showed that the loans services offered by SACCO MBONEZISONGA MUSAMBIRA, respondents agrees 100% that collateral required is affordable to the clients, the objective of providing access to loan with an equaled service excellence has been reached, terms of Loan repayment is fair, SACCO MBONEZISONGA MUSAMBIRA loan provide general business growth objectives for their own business, Loans offered by SACCO MBONEZISONGA MUSAMBIRA are enough, SACCO MBONEZISONGA MUSAMBIRA offers loans to clients at affordable interest rates, the Loan repayment period is long enough to the clients, Loan is quickly processed at the SACCO MBONEZISONGA MUSAMBIRA, Loan Monitoring is well done by SACCO MBONEZISONGA MUSAMBIRA Staff, Loans offered by SACCO MBONEZISONGA MUSAMBIRA are enough, Discount loans payment to encourage paying before time. Regarding the the contribution of this Sacco to the socio-economic development of its members results shows that SACCO MBONEZISONGA MUSAMBIRA increased monthly income earned by members. As shown in this table, the income per month increased after getting loan from this cooperative as the number of members who earned 50,000-100,000Rwf decreased from 42.9% to 18.2%, those who earned 100,001-150,000Rwf increased from 36.4% to 43.4%. Those who earned 150,001-200,000Rwf increased from 14.1% to 18.1%, members who earned 200,000Rwf and above increased from 7.5% to 13.1%.