Saving and credit cooperatives has been growingly playing essential role enhancing the welfarernof the society during the last few decades. Despite their great contribution, they are facingrnseveral challenges that typically emanates from their organizational and governance problems.rnConsequently, many studies have been undertaken on saving and credit cooperatives thatrntargeted to examine the nature and consequences of their governance. However, many of themrnhave approached the subject focused on the relationship between an aspect of governance and arnchosen measure of performance. This partly has led to quite huge lack of consistency in thernresearch outcomes pertaining to the essential nature of the relationship between governance andrnperformance of saving and credit cooperatives.rnThe purpose of this research is to underline the true nature of the relationship betweenrngovernance and outreach of saving and credit cooperatives in Addis Ababa. Explanatory researchrnapproach is employed, and mainly secondary data are used with supplementary primaryrninformation. The study used a panel data framework that pools observations on cross-section ofrnunits over the last three years periods (2017/18 to 1019/20). The unit of analysis are 232rncurrently operational primary saving and credit cooperatives that are enrolled under Addis Ababarnsaving and credit union. Samples of 60 units are randomly taken and primary data are collectedrnusing self-administered semi structured questioner and secondary data are collected usingrndocuments review.rnThe research statistically examined whether the data met the underlying assumptions of ordinaryrnleast square method. Then Pearson correlation analysis has been carried out to examine the netrneffects of each explanatory variable over the response variables. Finally, the nature andrnmagnitude of the relationship between governance and outreach is underlined through thernanalysis of the joint effects of the explanatory variables on the response variables using multiplernregression technique. The study has found that the independent variables board competency,rnboard meeting frequency, and internal control mechanism have strong positive effects onrnoutreach of SCCO both in terms of the number of clients served and the average loan size. It hasrnalso found that weak positive association exists between the explanatory variables board size,rnboard diversity, and incentive mechanism with the response variables number of borrowers andrnthe average loan size.