The Effect of Funding Structure and Liquidity on Financial Performance of Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies in Murang’a County

Abstract

The study sought to find out the effects of funding structure and liquidity on the financial performance of savings and credit societies in Murang’a County. The county has a total of sixty eight active SACCOs distributed in various segments which entail urban, transport, agricultural and rural. The study drew its consideration on the SACCOs which had member’s deposits in excess of five million shillings. Secondary data in the form of financial statistics for the period of the year 2009- 2013 were considered. The study sought to find out how the members deposits to assets, leverage, liquidity and firm size affected the financial performance of the savings and credit co-operative societies. The study employed the regression coefficient and fitted all the variables on to the model used to confirm how they influenced the phenomena. The findings revealed that Liquidity was the most critical factor influencing Financial performance of SACCO societies in Murang’a county while members deposits to assets is the second most critical variable in influencing the financial performance of the SACCOs compared to the other variables. Most of the credit and savings societies were confirmed to have good leverage. This was occasioned by the fact that their debt levels were low in comparison to the total assets of the organizations. Most of the SACCOs had shareholder funds levels which conformed to the expected standards. This is because the SACCOs in many instances had equity levels which were lower than the total assets. Most of the organizations were found not to have good liquidity levels. This is because their cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments and the accounts receivables did not exceed their current liabilities. All the SACCOs had their revenue levels lower than the total members’ deposits. It was thus an indication that they had impaired capacities with regard to the firm size. The study recommended that the savings and credit societies should seek to aggressively mobilize member’s deposits with an aim of growing their capital reserves. The savings and credit societies should seek to manage their debt levels. This will inevitably give them good leverage. It may also assure them of capacity to grow their asset bases devoid of exposing the members to any undue risk with regard to eroding their asset values at the advent of failure to meet obligations to entities which have advanced them credit .The savings and credit societies should seek to manage their equity levels prudently. They should have access to capital in monetary form to effectively service their obligations to clients. Savings and credit societies should work towards ensuring that the total revenue accruing from the organization’s activities effectively matches the members’ deposits. This will see to it that the firm size is enhanced