The rationale and impact of Banques Populaires transformation from a cooperative to a commercial bank

IV. POPULATION AND SAMPLE SIZE

^{Bailey says that «the population is universal objects over which research is to be carried out». The ideal practice in research would be to gather information from the entire population; this will ensure maximum coverage of the population concerned in the research. But due to limited time and funds the entire population of the research can not be covered and the sample defined as a sub set of population was used.}

^{Duttolph et al (1986) argue that if the sample is selected properly, the information collected about the sample may be used to make statements about the whole population.}

The target population of this research was a group of sixty stakeholders interviewed, and the group was composed of twenty five employees and board of directors and thirty five customers interviewed in this research in relation to Banques Populaires transformation from a cooperative to a commercial bank, its rationale and impact. This Group of interviewees was chosen because they are involved in Banques Populaires activities directly or indirectly, they were supposed to have all the information regarding the life of the bank.

IV.1 SAMPLE SIZE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUES

^{In selecting the sample size, stratified sampling was applied. Arkin and gult (1987) point out that in determining the sample, 10% of the total population estimate is required.}

^Category of respondents	^Employees and board of directors	^Customers	^Total number of customers
^Number of respondents	^25	^35	^60

V. DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUES

^{Data collection for this study was collected through documentary sources, observation, questionnaires and structure and unstructured interviews.}

^{V.1 DOCUMENTARY SOURCES}

^{According to Mbaaga (1990: 29), documents are materials, which contain the information about a phenomenon that researchers wish to study. In this study the documents targeted are government reports, laws and international reports, previous researches about Banques Populaires,Commercial banks and financial sector in Rwanda.}

^{V.2 OBSERVATIONS}

^{According to bailey, as cited by Rwigamba (2001: 46), an observation is the primary technique for collecting data on the non-verbal behavior. Although observation commonly involves sight or visual data collection via other senses such as hearing, touching and smelling, observation was used especially to categories of those respondents who do not want to reveal their personal status with regard to what they own.}

^{V.3 QUESTIONNAIRE}

^{Mbaaga (1990: 25) defined a questionnaire as a set of questions which are asked to get information from a respondent. It is also currently used to mean a set of questions, which are self-administrated. A questionnaire was designed and pre-tested before the researcher submited it to the selected respondents.}

^{V.4 INTERVIEWS}

^{An interview can be defined as face-to-face conversation between an interviewer and the respondent conducted for the purpose of obtaining information (Mbaaga, 1990: 338). Two types of interviews have been used: the formal (structured) interview and the informal (unstructured) interview.}