Abstract

In the face of the unfavourable business climate in n the Nigerian economy, the typical Nigerian budding entrepreneur is guided by such institutional credit markets as the Bank of Industry, Microfinance banks and cooperative societies as avenues for improving the wealth-creating potentials of such entrepreneurs. Against a background of increased interest in cooperative studies coupled with startling statistics of business failure all over the world, the study has a main objective of evaluating the activities of the Ogun State Cooperative Federation Limited, in her bid to stem the failure of her constituent cooperative societies and by extension the survival of cooperative-financed small and medium scale enterprises in Ogun State, Nigeria between 2005 and 2010. The study, designed as a survey, utilized a two-pronged approach in sourcing primary data through the use of questionnaires. Out of the 110 questionnaires administered, 108 were returned representing 98.18 response rate. All the respondents were cooperative members who are owners of small businesses in the State. With a Cronbach α coefficient of 0.902, the internal consistency and reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed while the data were analyzed using inferential and descriptive statistics such as simple percentages, rating indices and the Students t distribution. The study revealed that the performance of the Ogun State Cooperative Federation Limited (OGSCOFED) did not significantly stem the cases of business failure among its constituent cooperative societies in Ogun State, Nigeria between 2005 and 2010. Among the study’s recommendations are that OGSCOFED should intensify activities that ensure that cooperative societies are constantly exposed to seminars, training sessions, workshops, interactive sessions etc., all in a bid to ensure that mem4bers’ businesses thrive .The federating body should also assist the individual cooperative societies to retrieve bad loans, inasmuch as they were not created by natural disasters like floods or fire.