Abstract:
SACCOs have been growing in the recent past so as to meet the financial needs of many who
cannot access the same services from the mainstream banking sector. However, the SACCCOs are
faced by some challenges as they grow and corporate governance is one of the challenges faced
by many firms to an extent of some SACCOs collapsing in case of failure to correct the
maintenance and control challenge.
Corporate governance is a concept which entails practices of the organization management and
control and the relation among the persons who provide recourses for operations of the firm who
include; shareholders, employees, the board of management, suppliers and customers. The purpose
of this study was therefore to identify the relationship between corporate governance and financial
performance of SACCOs in Embu County. In particular, the specific objectives were to study how
board size, leadership influence and transparency, disclosure and accountability affects the
financial performance of these SACCOs .The research problem was identified through the use of
descriptive research design .Population of interest was ten SACCOs in Embu County .Data
collection involved use of secondary data from SACCO annual published reports and any other
literature from the targeted SACCOs. This data was analyzed through the use of descriptive
analysis technique. The findings were presented in percentages and tabulations .The findings
revealed that there a strong negative relationship correlation between board size and financial
performance meaning that the fewer the board members the better the financial performance of
SACCOs. Also, there is a positive relationship correlation between leadership influence and
financial performance of SACCOs and there is a positive relationship correlation between
transparency, disclosure and accountability and financial performance. The study therefore
concluded that these factors can be used to measure financial performance in SACCOs
