Operating Performance and Capital Structure of Rural Saving and Credit Cooperatives in Ethiopia: Application of Panel Threshold Method
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2008-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The main objective of this study was to examine whether operating performances of rural saving and credit cooperatives are under the influence of capital structure inline with loans growth, and to test if threshold relationship exists in these cooperatives of the Amhara, Oromia, SNNP and Tigray regions. A panel data of 92 rural saving and credit cooperatives from 2004 to 2007 was used and threshold regression analysis model developed by Hansen (1999) applied. Further, this study reviews the saving and loan outreach as well as financial performance of rural saving and credit cooperatives using Protection, Effective financial structure, Asset quality, Rates of return and cost, Liquidity and Signs of growth(PEARLS) monitoring system software that developed by World Credit Cooperative Union. The empirical findings depict that capital structures significantly influence rural saving and credit cooperatives. The threshold variables (net worth to loan ratio) have two values 0.11 and 0.01. When the threshold value is between these figures, every unit of growth in loans increases operating performance by 0.10 times, which is not satisfactory. The empirical findings also show that the growth in loans for the rural saving and credit cooperatives in all four regions affects operating performance. In addition, saving and loan outreach performance varies by region. While, Oromia comprises 53% of the rural saving and credit cooperatives, Amhara dominates with small number of savers (14%) but with large number of borrowers (30%). In general, the number of savers to borrowers in Amhara is 3:1, in Tigray 3.2:1, in SNNP 4:1 and in Oromia 23:1. Moreover, the empirical findings of financial performance of rural saving and credit cooperatives using monitoring system software shows that all rural saving and credit cooperatives in the country are not practicing loan loss protection and even solvency is 50% less than the standard.
Description
Keywords
Capital Structure of Rural Saving