4. Conclusion
The result reveals positive correlation between: receivables and gross income; total asset and net income/surplus; total equity/capital and total asset; number of members and paid-up shares from members; and paid-up shares from members and retained earnings. The study stresses the importance of financial stewardship. The study found evidence that weak commitment to stewardship translates into poor financial performance such as low level of total receivables and gross income, low level of total assets and net surplus/income, low level of total assets and total equity/capital, low level of paid-up shares from members, low level of retained earnings attributable to the paid-up shares from members. Financial stewardship also brings practical contribution to the development of cooperatives. The stewards should implement good credit policies to encourage the members to patronize their cooperatives and they should identify appropriate mark-ups and minimize cost of servicing credit for the cooperatives to have higher gross income. They should also implement financial strategies such as using debt or equity/capital to increase the cooperatives’ assets and utilize these assets effectively to generate higher net surplus/income. They should also encourage members to contribute more capital by providing the members with better services and benefits such as greater dividends, higher profitability, growth in assets, and growth in equity value through increased retained earnings.