ABSTRACT

The study assessed alternative sources of funding community development programmes in South East, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was used for the study. The area of the study is South East, Nigeria. Five research questions and five hypotheses guided the study. A sample size of 450 respondents comprising 300 Community Development Union (CDU) members and 150 church members in South East were drawn through the use of multi-stage sampling technique from a target population of 9,101. A 4-point rating scale questionnaire with face and content validity ascertained by three experts from; Measurement and Evaluation, Adult and Continuing Education in the College of Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike and reliability coefficient 0.81 for the instrument was obtained through Cronbach method. The 450 copies of questionnaires were administered with the help of five Research Assistants. Research questions were answered using mean ratings, while the hypotheses were tested using t-test analysis at 0.05 level of significance. The results of the study revealed that faith-based sources to a high extent enhance funding of community development programmes in south-east; community-based sources to a high extent enhance funding of community development programmes in south-east; tertiary institution-based sources to a high extent enhance funding of community development programmes in south-east; bank institution-based sources to a low extent enhance funding of community development programmes in south-east; diaspora-based sources to a high extent enhance funding of community development programmes in south-east.  Based on the findings, recommendations were made; that banks should reduce loan interest rate to rural farmers in order to facilitate the development of agriculture in the communities, Communities should intensify their contributions to developmental programmes especially in areas like health, education and production of food, Community members should be carried along in planning, organizing and implementing of community based programmes among others.