Dissertation (MA Business Administration)Financial linkage between Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies and commercial Banks is one of the best ways of delivering financial services to majority who are out of formal financial sector. The general objective of the study was to Assess Factors that Affect Effective Partnership between Commercial Banks and SACCOS. Specifically the study assessed the Partnership between CRDB and SACCOS, Challenges of Partnership and recommended way forward to improve relationship between the Bank and SACCOS.Data were collected through interviews, observations and documentary reviews using a sample size of 50 SACCOS, and were analyzed using SPSS and Excel spreadsheet database software‟s. Results of the study found that the partnership had challenges which need to be addressed for mutual benefits between parties. They include High interest rates from Bank leading to high interest charged to member borrowers, increased loan losses due to failure by members to repay loans, Increased dependency on external loans and thus increasing the fear of SACCOS being used as argents for credits, very slow growth of Savings and members deposits for building internal capital, unstable and inefficient products and services, poor customer service to partners when they visit Bank branches, Untimely trainings to SACCOS,Failure to support internal systems, management and formation of appropriate products and service. All these increased the feeling that, CRDB Bank is using SACCOS as a bridge for lending. The researcher recommends that, challenges observed should carefully be resolved for a more fruitful linkage.