The impact of credit unions on national development The case of Uew Credit Union

Abstract

The study evaluated the contribution of credit unions contribution to community development in Ghana. Contextually, the study focused on the financial development of clients of a Credit Union. Clients in this study are referred to those customers that are both shareholders and non-shareholders. This study used the case study as the research design. A sample size of two hundred (200) customers was selected out of the population. The study thematically used the customers as well as the staff of UEW Credit Union. The sampling techniques that was used for data collection were purposive and convenience sampling techniques. Purposive sampling was used to select six (6) staff from UEW Credit Union while convenience sampling technique was used in selecting customers as respondents. Findings indicated that most clients deal with other financial institutions apart from UEW Credit Union. It was also found out that, four main reasons people save with the credit unions are easy access to loans, opportunity to realize bulk sum, attractive interest rate and ability to make regular small deposits (susu), and revealed four main reasons why customers borrowed money at the credit unions - for business liquidity support, asset acquisition, education, and for business startups. The study recommends the promulgation of the credit union laws to be able to expand their operations.