PROBLEMS OF FUNDING RURAL AGRIPRENEURSHIP IN EPE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

Agripreneurship at all levels provides huge potential for sustainable development; yet in Nigeria, the rural agricultural small and medium scale enterprises sub-sector has stagnated and remains relatively small in terms of its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product. Finance is one of the critical factors for the development of cooperative societies and rural agricultural enterprises in any nation. The study was conducted to examine the problems of funding agriprenuership in Epe Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria. In the study, 360 structured questionnaires were distributed to the selected rural agripreneurship located in three rural areas at an average of one hundred and twenty questionnaires for each area. The Chi-square results showed that there are problems in financing rural small scale enterprises through the cooperative societies. The results shows that there is no problem in financing rural small scale enterprises through the cooperative societies as such the null hypothesis (H1) should be rejected, and Hi be accepted. In order words, there are problems in financing rural small scale enterprises through the cooperative societies. The study concludes the sources of funding rural small and medium scale enterprises or agriprenuership can better be sustained through the cooperative societies or formation. It therefore, recommends that government should put in place an independent small business authority and specific bank for SMEs vis-a-vis the cooperative societies especially in the rural areas in Nigeria.