Relationship between corporate governance practices and financial services of teachers' Saccos in Coast province of Kenya

Abstract

The objective of the study was to establish the relationship between Corporate Governance practices and financial services offered by the Teachers SACCOs in the Coast Provine of Kenya. To satisfy the research objective, the researcher used a descriptive survey comprising of all the district-based Teachers SACCOs in the province. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires. Respondents from the SACCO were clustered into three categories as the CEO, the Board members and the shareholders who are teachers.

Three sets of questionnaires were designed for each category of respondents Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented in tables and bar charts. The study revealed that all the SACCOs adopt the Corporate Governance practices but to different extents with fairness and responsibility scoring average. The study also established that there is a positive relationship between the Corporate Governance practices adopted and the financial services offered by the SACCOs. The findings showed that accountability and transparency have more influence to the various types of financial services offered in most of the SACCOs.

Even though the SACCOs adopt to some extent all the Corporate Governance practices, most of them complained that the Cooperative Act make it difficult to implement them effectively. The researcher therefore recommends that the Sacco Societies Act,2008 should be strictly enforced especially the Sacco Societies(Deposit- Taking Sacco Business) Regulation of 2010. The Sacco Society Regulatory Authority (SSRA) should strictly enforce its regulations to all the SACCOs in the country to minimize the many frauds experienced by most SACCOs