CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

Cooperative is a voluntary organization that is established within the people with common interest in cooperative there are some principles that guided the operation of cooperative business as stated by (ICA 1995). The first among the seven (7) principle is voluntary and open membership which is the area of consideration in this study.

The principle require that membership of any cooperative society should be left open to new intending members without any artificial restriction it means that cooperative societies are non exclusive clubs of a few person or as private companies.

The spirit behind this principle means that in cooperative societies, members have to view properly and business enterprises of the society not in the selfish, egocentric spirit of capitalism but in the cooperative spirit of solidarity and universal brotherhood. The society must be prepared to admit new members, it is like a work of social service to mankind, new members may come in and enjoy the fruits of the society built up by the old and past members.

Chukwu (1990) says advantage of cooperative openness is that open door policy of the cooperative not only makes good philosophy. It also makes cooperative movement to spread throughout the whole nation/world, thud making the benefits of membership good because of the process of integration.

Again, Amahalu (2006) says voluntary and open membership makes the business to increase volume by volume. The more people join the cooperative business, the greater the chance of the group achieving its objectives in terms of skills, capital volume of production and sales.