Saving Behaviour and Determinants of Saving Mobilization by Rural Financial Co- Operators in Tigrai Region, Ethiopia

This paper identified and examined saving behaviour and determinants of saving mobilization by the rural co-operators in Southern Tigrai Ethiopia. The input for the study was obtained from randomly selected 120 rural household savers from six purposively selected rural savings and credit cooperatives. The result of the study using least squares method showed that savings mobilized is determined by household annual income, amount of loan borrowed and year of member stay in the cooperative. These factors therefore have to be considered in designing strategies aimed at improving the saving mobilization of cooperative members in the study area. Besides, economically feasible cooperative societies in the region should be encouraged among the rural households by supporting them with revolving funds as they are more effective and efficient in mobilizing rural savings and provide collateral plus guarantor-based loans with low default rate. This will enable them to boost up their production output and increase their savings thereby stimulating the rural economy.