Influence of Credit Availability Disbursement on the Level of Savings Among Members of Deposit Taking SACCO’s in Nyeri County

Abstract

One of the key goals of the SACCO movement is to mobilize savings. However, despite having the largest SACCO sectors in the world, available data shows there is a low personal and household savings rate in Kenya. The majority of Kenyans do not have a savings culture and live each day as it comes. Kenyans are thought to save only 12% of their incomes on average, which is insufficient to support any serious investment in any sector of the economy. The current study therefore sought to assess the influence of credit availability disbursements on the level of savings. This study was guided by the permanent income hypothesis and loanable funds theory of interest. The study adopted a descriptive cross sectional survey research design.  The target population was 156,000 active individual members of the 8 deposits taking SACCOs in Nyeri County. The sample of size was 400 respondents derived purposively. To obtain data, the researchers employed a standardized self-administered questionnaire. A pre-test was undertaken in deposit-taking SACCOs in Murang'a County to determine the instrument's reliability and validity. The data was analyzed using descriptive and regression analysis. In the analysis, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 was utilized. Tables were used to present the data. Majority of the members agreed that loan ratio/multiplier was applied when granting credit facility.  The study concluded that there was a positive significant relationship between credit availability disbursements and member’s savings level in the SACCOs. The study recommended that short-term promotional incentives may be one strategy to encourage people to save more, although evidence on their effectiveness is limited. The study recommends to SASRA to accommodate the total savings and deposits when ranking the performance of deposit taking Saccos other than considering only the total assets parameter.