Influence of gender in the saving culture of SACCO members in Nyandarua County, Kenya

Abstract

Abstract: Saving is a key component in any development endeav or as it is believed to be the surest way of increa sing income and boosting productivity in an attempt to break th rough the vicious cycle of poverty. A number of stu dies have demonstrated that the investment and retirement saving behaviors of w omen and men differ. However, inconsistencies in fi ndings exist in the few studies conducted on the differences in general sav ing behaviors between men and women. The purpose of this study was to establish gender differences in saving culture with a special bias on SACCO members. Specifically, the study aimed at assessing the influence of income levels on saving culture; e valuate the effect of marital status on saving cult ure and establish the influence of age on saving culture of SACCO members in Nyanda rua County. The research adopted a descriptive surv ey design and targeted all business and agricultural based SACCO members and officials in Nyandarua County. 18 SACCO officials and 375 SACCO members were sampled using purposive and stra tified random sampling respectively. The researcher collected data using structured questionnaires. A descriptive anal ysis of the data after processing involved computin g mean, mode and median with the help of Statistical Package of Social Scie nces Software and Microsoft Excel and presented in frequency tables and charts. Marital status of the respondents was found to be s tatistically significant in terms of the annual sav ing. The result implies that a change in marital status will affect the annual sav ings negatively. The researcher is 99.952% confiden ce that the change in marital status will negatively have an impact on an nual saving. The researcher recommends nurturing of marriage institution as a way of protecting saving culture among women and me n members of the SACCO in Nyandarua County.