Participation of Women in Cooperative Activities in Imo State, Nigeria: The Information Factor (Published)
Women in Imo State, especially the ruralites are generally believed to be unaware of the various opportunities open to them in cooperative activities. To reveal how the women, get involved in cooperative activities, in spite of their notion of alleged information poverty, underscores the imperative of this study. Survey research design was adopted to investigate a sample of 1, 184 women, proportionately derived from the 27 LGAs that make up Imo State. A combination of structured and validated questionnaire and interview schedule were used to collect data from purposively selected women from the sample. Five types of cooperative information were provided to the women namely: cooperative education, sourcing of funds, membership/registration modalities, sale and purchase conditions, financial contribution procedure. They participated in various cooperative activities including marketing of goods and services. Talk shows and group discussions were the must effective ways to disseminate cooperative information to the women. Both government and NGOS should be more involved in providing the women with timely and relevant cooperative information, using the right media and language. The paper concludes that cooperative activity is a sure way to improving the economic and social wellbeing of rural women and therefore should be vigorously encouraged.
Keywords: Cooperative Activities, Cooperative Education Imo State, Financial Contribution, Information Factor, Sourcing of Funds, Women