An Empirical Analysis of Livelihood Diversification Among Cooperative Members Through Agency Banking in Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

Livelihood diversification is vital for enhancing economic resilience in underserved regions, yet cooperative members in Nigeria continue to face income instability and limited financial resources. This study evaluates the effect of agency banking (AB) on livelihood diversification among Farmers' Multi-purpose Cooperative Societies in Awka South, Anambra State, focusing on income stability (IS), occupational diversity (OD), poverty reduction (PR), and skill diversity and development (SDD). Using a descriptive survey design, the study applied a multi-stage sampling technique to select 157 respondents from six cooperatives, with data analyzed from 96 valid responses using descriptive statistics and simple linear regression (LR). Findings show that AB has a statistically significant positive effect on all four dimensions. The strongest relationship was found with IS (R = 0.677), followed by SDD (R = 0.494) and OD (R = 0.355), while PR showed a weaker but significant association (R = 0.271). These results suggest that access to financial services through local agents helps members manage cash flow, invest in income-generating ventures, and diversify their livelihoods. The study concludes that AB is a transformative tool for socioeconomic empowerment within cooperatives and recommends that policymakers incentivize financial institutions to expand agent networks in rural areas. In contrast, cooperative leadership integrates financial-literacy training to sustain these gains.

Received: 7 April 2026 | Revised: 11 August 2026 | Accepted: 20 September 2026

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Author Contribution Statement

Taiwo Olabisi Abdulahi: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration. Chinedu Francis Egbunike: Software, Validation, Formal analysis.