THE ROLE OF VOLUNTARY AND OPEN MEMBERSHIP IN INCREASING THE EFFICIENCY OF CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES

1.1 Introduction

Cooperative definition according to the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) is “an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.” It is a business voluntarily owned and controlled by its member patrons and operated for them and by them on a nonprofit or cost basis (UWCC, 2002).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of 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) principles 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.

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. In cooperative practice voluntary and open membership is not absolute because there is need for selection, what we have in cooperative is “qualified openness” not everybody that apply has the automatic right to be admitted. Dishonest men, non Conformist, those whose purpose would detrimental to the aims of the society, or who will not obey the rules of the society, such people obviously would not be admitted.

Obodoechi (2002), explain that cooperative societies are not complete welfare organization with business entity there is need for selection because not everybody can meet the financial requirements like minimum share holding. Entrance fees monthly savings etc. Although cooperative law made the financial requirement to be small (minimum) but yet some may not afford it.

Furthermore, there is the need for selection in membership of cooperative organization because of the need for a limited degree of homogeneity e.g Farmers Marketing Cooperative Society cannot accept somebody who is not a farmer, a cooperative society that is for a particular church, mosque, school cannot accept one who is a member of the above mentioned groups. Again cooperative voluntary and open membership is not absolute because cooperative law specified the minimum age for membership except infant cooperative organization. But the age specification differs from country to country and region to region.

Finally, the membership openness is not absolute in cooperative organization because the guidelines for membership are always clearly stated in the cooperative law and bye-law of individual societies. Any intending member must abide with the guideline before he/she is admitted and the society has the right to admit or not to admit but the right not to admit must be exercised rationally and not literarily.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the role of voluntary and open membership in increasing the efficiency of Co-operative societies.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

The nature of cooperative is to be free for any qualified individual to joint without any gender, social racial, political or religious discrimination. This was clearly expressed in the principle of voluntary and open membership, for instance Chuckwu 1990; Amahala, 2006 agrees that voluntary and open membership make cooperative business to increase volume by volume, the more people joint the cooperative business the greater the chance of the group achieving its objectives in terms of skills, capital volume of production and sales.

Ccooperative societies are not complete welfare organization with business entity there is need for selection because not everybody can meet the financial requirements like minimum share holding (Obodoechi, 2002).

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to scrutinize the role of voluntary and open membership in increasing the efficiency of Co-operative societies. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To examine the role of voluntary and open membership in increasing the efficiency of cooperative society.
2. To determine how only qualified members will be admitted into cooperative societies.
3. To identify the importance of openness in society development.
4. To find out how societies can abide the principles of voluntary and open membership.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• What is the role of voluntary and open membership exhibited by cooperatives in increasing the efficiency of cooperative societies?
• What makes members qualify admission in cooperative societies?
• What is the importance of openness in cooperative societies’ development?
• What makes society abide by the principle of voluntary and open membership?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

• H0: There is no significant role of voluntary and open membership exhibited by cooperatives in increasing the efficiency of cooperative societies
• H1: There is a significant role of voluntary and open membership exhibited by cooperatives in increasing the efficiency of cooperative societies

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1.7 Significance of Study

The study examines the role of voluntary and open membership principle in increasing the efficiency of cooperative society. The significance of a study of this magnitude cannot be over emphasized.

The government cooperative department, cooperate organization involve in cooperative activities, cooperative societies of any kind in-coming student as well as other researchers alike will find this study really significant especially as they utilize the finding.

The government cooperative Department and of course cooperative organization engaged in cooperative venture, the findings of this study will be used as a basic from enacting policies that will effectively regulate the activities of any cooperative society so that the essence of the principles cannot be defeated.

Furthermore, members of the public who are interested in cooperative will use the result of this study as an insight in to the formation of new societies. It will contribute in creating more awareness in the in habitants of the immediate community as regard the role of voluntary and open membership principle towards increasing the society efficiency.

It should also be noted that this study is of scholarly importance. Student undergoing research works similar to the present study and other scholars alike will find this work as a reference material or a sprint board for their own research works.

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1.8 Scope of the Study

This study focuses on the role of voluntary and open membership in increasing the efficiency of Co-operative societies. An examination of how qualified members can be admitted in a society as well as importance of openness in society development. The study equally covers an indepth examination of possible problems that could be militating against role of voluntary and open membership principle. The research work is restricted to NNPC-KRPC staff Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited located in Kaduna South local government area.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

The following terms have to be defined in order to make the study clear for more comparism.

NNPC: Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation.

KRPC: Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company

Cooperative Society: This refers to coming together of people sharing the same interest to establish a business for their personal satisfaction.

Voluntary and Open Membership: This simply means cooperative society is free organization that allow any qualified individual to join or to be a member without any gender, religious or political discrimination.

Efficiency: This means the ability to do something well or achieve a desired result without wasted energy, time or effort.

Members: These are the personal individuals that come together as one in an association or an organization.