CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

Cooperative has been the bedrock of promoting women through its numerous income-yielding ventures that will stimulate the economic status of women. According to International Cooperative Alliance, Cooperative Enterprise is a business that is organized with the sole aim of satisfying the interest of members. The central focus is not the maximization of profit like other businesses but to ensure that members socio-economic needs are met through cooperative promotion.

According to Ijere (1991) cooperative plays a significant role in promoting their members economic status by:

1.           Generating employment opportunities

2.           Generation of appreciable income

3.           Reduction of Exodus to urban areas

4.           Making old techniques perfecting new

5.           Training members to become entrepreneurs

He further submits that women economic status can only be promoted through cooperative because the economic situations in the country have made it impossible to men to provide all the needs in the family.

Asaolu (2004) admits that cooperative have potential in promoting the economic status of women through capacity building. It also add that women status can be promoted through enhancement of skills acquisition enlightenment programmes organize by cooperative. Onuoha (2002) confirms that cooperative make it impossible for the rural dwellers to become shareholder and managers of their own investing by so doing, cooperative serves as an avenue for promoting women because it increases their economic capacity through convenient saving device assessment of loan and increase their standard of living.

Thus, this study seeks to empirically determine prevailing practices of women primary cooperative and their effects on women socio-economic stability.