ABSTRACT

This study assessed the activities of self-help groups in communities in South-East Nigeria. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. A sample of  750 respondents were drawn from a population of 5,536 registered and non-registered self-help groups including  town unions, age grades, and women associations within the three selected states in South-East Nigeria.  The sample was arrived at using multi-stage sample procedure. The instrument for data collection was a 54-item researcher-developed questionnaire titled:  “Self-Help Goups Development Activities Assessment Questionnaire (SGCDAAQ)”. Face validation of the instrument was carried out by three experts: two from Adult and Continuing Education and one from Educational Measurement and Evaluation all from College of Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State. This was to ensure item adequacy, measurability and relevance of the instrument to the study. The reliability of the instrument was determined using the test-retest method that yielded an index of 0.85 on the Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation scale. The instrument has six clusters with rated on a 4-point scales of Very Great Extent(4), Great Extent (3), Low Extent (2), and Very Low Extent (1) and items were positively stated. The data were collected by the researcher with the help of nine (9) well-briefed research assistants. Out of the 750 copies of the questionnaire administered, 722 representing 96% of the entire instrument distributed were returned and used for data analysis. Data collected were analyzed with mean and standard deviations to answer the six research questions raised for the study while, ANOVA and t-test statistics were used to test the six hypotheses that guided the study at 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed among others that, rural mobilization Self-Help Groups in disease eradication initiative, security and peace initiative as well as infrastructural development initiative respectively has contributed to a very great extent in infrastructural development while rural mobilization by engagement of women associations in improved agricultural practices and information dissemination initiative contributed to a great extent in community development of South East Nigeria, Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that, adult educators should carry out periodic sensitization of different Self-help Groups within their areas of jurisdiction in communities to regularly remind them of their roles and contributions to the general development of their communities.