Empirical Study of Financial Literacy as a Mediator Between Cooperative Education and Member Economic Outcomes in Oyo State

Financial literacy has been theoretically positioned as a mediating mechanism between cooperative education and member economic outcomes, yet empirical validation of this mediation pathway in the Nigerian cooperative context is largely absent from the literature. This study empirically examined financial literacy as a mediator between cooperative education and economic outcomes among cooperative members in Oyo State, South West Nigeria. A cross-sectional quantitative design was adopted, with 300 cooperative members from forty-five societies in Ibadan, Ogbomosho, and Iseyin LGAs completing validated questionnaires. Cooperative education was measured through programme attendance frequency and knowledge retention scores. Financial literacy was assessed using an adapted twelve-item scale covering budgeting, credit management, savings, and investment knowledge. Economic outcomes were operationalised through income growth over three years, asset accumulation, and household expenditure on education. Baron and Kenny's four-step mediation procedure and bootstrapped mediation testing in SPSS PROCESS macro were employed. Results confirmed full mediation of financial literacy on the cooperative education-economic outcomes pathway (indirect effect beta = 0.34; 95 percent CI 0.19 to 0.49; bootstrapped p < 0.01). The direct effect of cooperative education on economic outcomes was non-significant once financial literacy was controlled, while financial literacy maintained a strong direct effect on economic outcomes (beta = 0.51; p < 0.001). The study provides empirical mediation evidence that positions financial literacy as the critical mechanism through which cooperative education produces economic benefits, recommending that cooperative education programmes be redesigned to explicitly build financial literacy rather than focusing solely on cooperative principles knowledge. Keywords: financial literacy, mediation analysis, cooperative education, economic outcomes, Oyo State