ABSTRACT

The study assessed the effectiveness of Rural Finance Institution Building Programme (RUFIN) in Akwa Ibom State. The specific objectives were to: describe the socio-economic characteristics of participants in RUFIN programme, determine the level of participation of RUFIN participants; ascertain the level of empowerment of participants, identify agricultural and non-agricultural enterprises promoted by RUFIN, determine the level of performance of participants and examine constraints faced by the participants. Multi-stage sampling procedure involving purposive and random sampling techniques were employed to select 303 respondents from the three RUFIN pilot Local Government Areas of the State. Primary data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages and mean scores, while Pearson product moment correlation analysis was used to test the null hypotheses at 5% significance level. The results revealed that the mean age of RUFIN participants was 42.9 years. More female VSG participants (56%) benefited from the programme than males (44%). The grand mean score of the responses of village saving groups (VSGs) on their level of participation was 2.77 while the grand mean score of the responses of Cooperative participants on their level of participation was 3.02. This implied that there was high level of participation of VSG and Cooperative participants in RUFIN in the study area. The grand mean score of the responses of VSGs on their level of empowerment was 2.62 while the grand mean score of the responses of Cooperative participants on their level of empowerment was 2.64. This implied that there was high level of empowerment of VSGs and Cooperatives in RUFIN activities. The result also showed that the respondents were given financial trainings in crop production (40.5%) and agro-processing (32.5%). The grand mean score of the responses of VSGs on their level of performance was 2.73 while the grand mean score of the responses of Cooperative participants on their level of performance was 2.92. This implied that there was high level of performance of VSGs and Cooperatives in RUFIN in the study area. Insufficient loans for business ( = 2.92) and high interest rate ( = 2.70) were recorded as major constraints faced by RUFIN beneficiaries. The result of the hypotheses testing revealed that for hypothesis one, there was a positive (r = 0.517) and significant (t = 5.374^**) relationship between the level of participation of cooperative societies in RUFIN programme and their level of empowerment at 5% significance level. For hypothesis two, the result also showed a positive (r = 0.351) and significant (t = 6.098^**) relationship between the level of participation of village saving groups in RUFIN programme and their level of empowerment at 5% significance level. The study concluded that there was high level of participation and empowerment of RUFIN participants in the study area. The study recommended among others the implementation of similar rural intervention programmes to grant more loans to participants; regular training of rural people to develop healthy saving culture and the establishment of functional socially inclusive financial institutions with single-digit interest rate.