Abstract

Author(s): Nkechi Amaechi, Jonathan Chima Ogugua, Magnus Chukwuduziem Unegbu, Anne Anthony Edem

The general purpose of this study is agencies and media of information provision and utilization by women in cooperative activities in Imo State, Nigeria. The survey design research was used for the study using self constructed and validated questionnaire as an instrument for data collection. The study adopted simple random method which was used to investigate 1,184 actual women respondents from the 27 LGAs in Imo State, Nigeria. Findings showed that none of the agencies had a monopoly of cooperative information provision of women in Imo State. The finding also showed that mass media, churches, schools, women groups, associations, community messengers/ town criers and friends’ relation were the media of cooperative information dissemination to the women. Public library was found to have contributed the least in the provision of cooperative information to women in Imo State. The study recommends that women group activities should be intensified, this can be done by encouraging women to form new groups and expand old ones so that they can earn more money to improve their quality of life and benefit from government's development programmes. Again, that public libraries should be established in all the LGAs in Imo State and to be manned by trained manpower, this will enable the rural dwellers to have access to information and appreciate the usefulness of public libraries in their lives.