Mediating Effect of Positioning Co-operatives on Post Covid-19 Economic Resilience Dilemma: Evidence from Deposit Taking SACCOs in Kenya

Abstract

In 2019 China reported an upper infectious respiratory viral disease, Covid 19, which spread worldwide posing a unprecedented threat in the history of mankind. Whereas the economic impact including fatalities was high, in the recent months most affected economies are beginning to debate on the best robust approach of economic recovery. Although United Nations advocates for
Social Solidarity Economy (SSE), people have limited understanding about it. This paper contributes to debate about SEE by examining the mediating effect of Deposit Taking (DT) Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies (SACCOs) on the economic resilience dilemma. The commonwealth co-operative school of thought theory guided the study. The theory states that co-operatives are social-economic institutions started by people having a common bond so as to meet their social-economic problems. A sample of 175 DT SACCOs was purposively taken using descriptive research design. Secondary data was collected from SACCOs Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) database and reliability test ascertained by carrying out test retest of the instruments. Data were analyzed through binary logistic regression whereby independent variables were categorical while the dependent variable was binary. Findings indicated that SACCOs had a positive significant relationship on economic resilience. The p-values for the types of SACCOs Government, Teachers, Farmers, and Private and Community based and output on savings, income, employment, loans, deposits and assets tested were less than 0.05. It was concluded that the DT SACCOs had significant relationship with economic recovery. The study recommended economies to consider SACCOs form of SSE as vehicles for economic recovery.