The Impact of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) on Sustainable Livelihoods in Rural Communities

This study sought to assess the impact of savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs) on rural sustainable livelihoods using the case of Nekatambe Ward 13 in Hwange district of Matabeleland North province in Zimbabwe. The study adopted a qualitative approach and a descriptive research design which were consistent with the research problem. Using convenience and purposive sampling, local leaders, non-governmental organisation (NGO) officials and members of the existing SACCOs were selected as respondents. The major findings were that SACCOs played a significant role in sustaining rural livelihoods particularly through enabling members to fend for themselves and their families. In addition, NGOs helped cooperatives through capacitating members with knowledge and technical skills and that SACCOs impacted positively on sustaining rural livelihoods. However, quite a number of challenges are associated with SACCOs in their bit to sustain rural livelihoods; with the major ones being failure to recover loans, competition from more established cooperatives, lack of start-up capital, poor financial and managerial skills and the general national economic meltdown. From the study findings, the researchers concluded that, despite the challenges associated with SACCOs, their existence under members’ resilience, has generally improved the lives of people in rural communities to generate employment, boost food production, send their children to school and empower the marginalized among other positive developments. Accordingly, the researchers recommend that SACCOs should diversify their operations and invest in fixed assets in order to curtail challenges and make lucrative benefits that can sustain their families and communities. On the other hand, the government and other concerned stakeholders should support SACCOs in order to alleviate the possible challenges that cripple them in their bid to promote rural livelihood sustainability.

Initiating Financial Technology (Fintech) as an Innovation of Communication Technology on Credit Cooperatives in Indonesia

The purpose of this study is to describe the possibility to initiate Finansial Technology (Fintech) as an innovation of communication technology on the credit cooperatives in Indonesia. This study is based on the phenomenon of tremendous growth of credit / financial business by using FinTech in Indonesia . Fintech so far has grew uncontrolablely among illegal financial institutions and gave unexpected impact on lower income people in Indonesia. On the other hand, the credit cooperatives as legal financial institutions which could facilitate lower income people for financial services lag behind. This study used quantitative-desciptive method, and resulted in some findings: (1) Cooperatives can become the fintech P2PL Platform model, as an alternative business model by changing conventional savings and loan businesses into the P2PL platform. The model could also be seen as a solution to prevent moral hazard due to miss-used of this technology among illegal credit instituions, (2) Fintech as an innovation is recognized feasible to apply. It has good relative advantage due to giving more efficiency and effectiveness on mana gement, it has good trialability because it may be easily experimented with on a limited basis, and has good observability because the result is visible to others, it has less complexity since it is easy to learn and apply. This study has implications for policies that fintech flatform model could be developed for credit cooperatives in Indonesia both in rural and urban areas..

The Essence and Main Differences of Consumer Societies from Credit Consumer Cooperatives in the Light of Attracting Citizens' Funds

The article is devoted to the comparative analysis of the essence of consumer and credit cooperatives in the context of attracting citizens' funds, the transformation of their economic processes and functions in the genesis of microeconomic development. The research is based on the analysis of historical documents and Russian publications, as well as on statistical conclusions of economic data. The aim of the study was to study the evolution of consumer societies and credit cooperatives as instruments for attracting household finances on the example of Russian and foreign companies since the middle of the XIX century. Semantic definitions of the categories consumer society and consumer credit cooperative, tasks and historical stages of the development of the studied communication tools in the field of attracting the means of the population are determined. The author's experience of comparative characteristics of the analyzed economic entities is proposed, reflecting the risks, advantages and disadvantages of the studied communication objects. The functions of the Bank of Russia as the main regulator of consumer credit cooperatives are disclosed. The final results of the study substantiate the importance of financial literacy and present an algorithm that allows the population to distinguish the legal activities of consumer credit cooperatives from fraudsters.

Development of the Popular and Solidarity Economy in Ecuador 2010 – 2019

Ecuador has considered the Popular and Solidarity Economy (EPS) as one of the best techniques to satisfy the economic need that arises in society, because this new form of organization allows undertaking and improving the enterprises that have arisen by improving the economic level of those who undertake. For this reason, several articles related to the research topic have been reviewed in order to observe the development that this economy has had in the last ten years in Ecuador. For this reason, this work is descriptive since it makes a critical review of the literature and applies a qualitative methodology, since it describes to what extent the economy in Ecuador has improved and emphasis is placed on savings and credit cooperatives who have had a successful economic development in the last decade, since they have increased both their economic capital and their members, and there are currently 887 cooperatives. These cooperatives have been substantially important when approving loans for small and medium entrepreneurs, because their interest rate is low and with payment facilities, which has allowed the increase of enterprises in different sectors, especially in rural areas.

Análisis de los programas de responsabilidad social en la imagen corporativa del sector cooperativista de la provincia de Tungurahua

Las organizaciones pertenecientes a la economía popular y solidaria son responsables por el cumplimiento de las expectativas que tienen los socios sobre las implicaciones de sus inversiones en los ámbitos medioambientales y la comunidad. La presente investigación tuvo por objetivo determinar el impacto de la responsabilidad social en la construcción de una imagen corporativa positiva en las cooperativas de ahorro y crédito del segmento 3 y 4 de la provincia de Tungurahua. Se aplicó una encuesta a los gerentes de 37 instituciones financieras para evaluación de su imagen corporativa, socios externos, socios internos e inversionistas. La confiabilidad para la aplicación del instrumento fue de 96%. Los hallazgos revelaron que, las instituciones han descuidado al grupo de interés externo e inversionistas. Sin embargo, se evidenció que las cooperativas de ahorro y crédito mantienen su responsabilidad hacia sus empleados (socios internos); es decir, el bienestar de sus socios internos ha sido su prioridad, pues, ha ocasionado el fortalecimiento interno de la organización. Palabras clave: Responsabilidad social, imagen corporativa, sector cooperativista, stakeholders. Abstract Organizations belonging to the popular and solidarity economy are responsible for meeting the expectations that members have regarding the implications of their investments in the environmental and community spheres. The objective of this research was to determine the impact of social responsibility in the construction of a positive corporate image in the savings and credit cooperatives of segment 3 and 4 of the province of Tungurahua. A survey was applied to the managers of 37 financial institutions to evaluate their corporate image, external partners, internal partners, and investors. The reliability for the application of the instrument was 96%. The findings revealed that the institutions have neglected the external interest group and investors. However, it was evidenced that savings and credit cooperatives maintain their responsibility towards their employees (internal partners), that is, the well-being of their internal partners has been their priority, since it has caused the internal streng- thening of the organization. Keywords: Social responsibi- lity, corporate image, coope- rative sector, stakeholders.

Lending by credit cooperatives, savings banks and other banks during the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany

We examine long-term lending in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany. We show that the pandemic is associated with increased lending by credit cooperatives and savings banks. The restrictions imposed by governments on social and economic life and the economic impact thereof, measured in terms of planned short-time work, show a significant correlation with the level of lending by all banks.

Construction of Rural Financial Organization Spatial Structure and Service Management Model Based on Deep Convolutional Neural Network

Local credit cooperatives have long played an important role in local financial services. It has made a significant contribution to agricultural production, farmers’ incomes, and the economic development of rural areas. In particular, as a financial instrument serving farmers, microfinance management by local credit cooperatives plays a key role in pursuing profits and fulfilling social responsibility. It was therefore important to obtain effective instruments for combating poverty in rural areas from all walks of society. This paper first outlines the development of microfinance loans in Germany and other countries and describes the current situation and some of the challenges facing local credit cooperatives in financial management. Next, we present the basic concepts of data mining, describe the common methods and key techniques of data mining, analyze and compare the properties of the individual data, and show how the associated mining can actually be performed. Next, we will explain the basic model of microfinance for farmers and some risks in detail and analyze and evaluate the characteristics of these risks in the context of local credit cooperatives. As a result, this paper proposes an improved deep convolutional neural network. The optimized algorithm selects the optimal weight threshold value and different iteration times. The results are fewer errors, the results are closer to the correct data, and the efficiency is better than before. The algorithm is more efficient because errors have been greatly reduced and the time spent on them has been slightly reduced.