THRIFT COOPERATIVES AND FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT: A TOOL FOR POST INSURGENCY DEVELOPMENT OF NORTH-EAST NIGERIA

The study was aimed at investigating the extent to which female who are members of thrift cooperatives have access to funds and its influence on their entrepreneurship development. Survey design method was adopted for the study. Data was collected from 84 women who are members of Virgin Thrift Society in Ngurore town, Adamawa State through Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics to answer the research question and the Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The result of analysis showed that 66.66% of the members have access to funds as seed capital to start their business, 11.90% access loan to meet family needs and 21.4% access funds to scale up their existing businesses. More so, there exist a significant relationship between having access to funds for business and the entrepreneurship development of female in thrift cooperative (r-value = 0.76, P<0.05). Based on the findings, it was recommended that the North-East Development Commission (NEDC) should work with local thrift societies to set up micro-loan scheme for women who have been affected by the recent insurgency attacks so as to set up businesses and boost their existing business in order to build their capacity to cater for their respective families.Keywords: Thrift, cooperative, savings, entrepreneurship, women, seed-funding, north-east Nigeria