Assessing the role and effects of saccos in promoting women’s development in the rural sector: a case of Mbozi District

The study aimed at assessing the role and effects of SACCOS in promoting women’s development in the rural sector, specifically to identify motives behind women’s participation in SACCOS, to find out how rural women benefit from SACCOS, investigate factors hindering rural women from accessing credit from SACCOS, and the efforts made to overcome challenges facing SACCOS members in accessing credit from SACCOS. A qualitative approach was employed to obtain the data for this study. The findings of the study showed that women having access to services from SACCOS contributed positively economically to rural women’s lives improved their agricultural production and in turn women to contribute to financially to the household. Credit is also used in education and health matters. In addition, SACCOS improves rural women’s position in making decision at the family and community level. However, the study revealed that rural women continue to have limited access to microcredit due to the nature of the credit scheme. This is due to the fact that SACCOS in particular demand savings first before borrowing. Women have limited source of income as most society do not allow women to own the major means of production such as land. The researcher recommends that, due to lack of collateral as a security for women in accessing credit facilities, this calls for alternative means; like group members acting as collateral security or they do credit rating so as to hedge against the credit risk and ensure that they serve all people without segregation. Furthermore, it has been recommended that SACCOS clients should be trained thoroughly before undertaking credit facilities so as to use money for the intended purposes only so that they can avoid misuse and diversion of funds.