An Assessment of Beneficiaries’ Satisfaction of the Management of Loan Contract Components by Farmer Cooperative Societies in Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed beneficiaries' satisfaction in the management of loag-contract components by cooperatives involved in the farm credit delivery in Edo State. The objective was to identify the components of the farm loan contract, examine the management strategies and rate the beneficiaries' satisfaction of such management strategies. This was done by purposively selecting 40 cooperatives involved in farm credit delivery in Oredo, Egor and Ikpoba-Okha LGAs of Edo State where there is a proliferation of cooperatives who are actively involved in farm credit delivery. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, queuing model and satisfaction indices. Results showed the main loan-contract components to be loan volume, repayment regime, interest rates charged, default management, collateral required, timeliness and loan monitoring. Average beneficiaries' index was 4.28 out of 5 indicating high satisfaction originating from good queue management with traffic density of 1.12, moderate interest rate of 9% p.a, active loan monitoring, no physical collateral, timely disbursement of loan and accommodative repayment regime. Only individual loan volumes were low as a result of inadequate loanable fund. Study recommends that cooperative societies should take advantage of external sources of funds to boost the volume of their loanable funds.