Factors Influencing Household Savings at Sindo Beach in Suba Sub County, Kenya

Abstract

Despite raking in millions of shillings from the huge stock of fish from Lake Victoria, residents of Sindo beach, one of the largest and busiest beaches in Suba Sub-county still live below the poverty line and households are finding it difficult to sustain their livelihoods. The purpose of this study was to assess the factors that influence household savings in Sindo beach, Suba Sub County. The study targeted twelve thousand one hundred and ninety five respondents drawn from Suba Sub County in Sindo beach area. The population composed of fishermen, fish traders and local shop traders. The researcher used both stratified random sampling and systematic sampling technique because of the heterogeneous nature of the population. Stratified random sampling was employed when sampling fishermen and shop traders, fish traders were sampled using systematic sampling technique because they were many and geographically dispersed. The researcher used a set of questionnaires and observation to collect data from the respondents. The questionnaires were tested prior to the data collection. It was translated into Dholuo the native language to accommodate the illiterate respondents. A five point Likert scale was used to measure the perception indices. The study has shown that elderly persons do not have the time and capacity to save and those good economic times encourage household savings. The study further shows that dependants from relative prevent an individual from savings. The middle-aged bracket did save more. I recommend that there should be a vigorous consumer awareness campaign on available saving products like M-Shwari where the old could be encouraged to save from their hand-held phones without having to travel to a bank. Also more saving societies should be formed to encourage pooling of resources of households together.