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Tag: Cooperatives

  • Sanwo-Olu: cooperatives vital to ending poverty

    Sanwo-Olu: cooperatives vital to ending poverty

    Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has described cooperative societies as having the potential to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of reducing poverty, promoting decent work, fostering innovation and enhancing social justice.

    He said cooperatives have the power to drive transformative change, so will always be relevant as a medium for bringing government’s development programme closer to the larger society.

    Sanwo-Olu spoke at the grand finale of the 30th International Day of Cooperatives, and the 102nd International Cooperative Day to be celebrated by the Cooperative Movement. The theme of the 2024 celebration is: ‘Cooperatives: Building a Better Future for All’.

    According to the governor, the theme highlights the potential of the Cooperative Movement at driving social, economic and environmental progress. “By pooling resources and fostering collaboration among members, Cooperatives can amplify individual efforts, mitigate risks and generate collective benefits for all stakeholders,” he noted.

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    The governor said his administration is interested and will advocate partnerships as a means of accelerated sustainable development because of its ability to mobilise people and financial resources, both of which are central to any development.

    The governor’s address, read by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, Cooperatives, Trade and Investment, Olugbemiga Aina, said: “Cooperative Societies will always be relevant as medium for bringing government’s development programme closer to the larger society. This is crucial when we understand that government alone cannot provide all that is required to address the challenges associated with sustainable development. By strengthening the Cooperative Movement through multi-stakeholder partnerships, our administration can facilitate additional financial resources and expertise to empower a greater number of people and boost development.”

  • Delta disburses 835.7m to 593 cooperatives

    Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa yesterday said the state disbursed N835, 700, 000 to 593 cooperative societies.

    Okowa spoke in Asaba while presenting the 2018 budget proposal to the House of Assembly.

    He said the 593 cooperative societies in the 25 councils were made up of 6,252 beneficiaries.

    The governor said the enterprises covered trading, agri-businesses and manufacturing with active participants like market women, artisans and small farm holders.

    Okowa also said 2,324 unemployed youths, including 51 persons with disabilities, were trained and established in enterprises of their choices.

    “Another 4,000 youths were trained in vocational centres under the State Employment and Expenditure for Result (SEEFOR) project of the World Bank and European Union (EU) intervention programme,” he said.

    The governor said the state contributed N600 million as counterpart fund to the project.

    He said 5,312 youths were employed and trained on how to build self-esteem, saving culture and entrepreneurship, to sustain their livelihood.

    The governor added that 42,000 jobs were created by programmes and projects of  Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

  • Govt disburses over N1.98b to cooperatives, others

    The Abuja Enterprise Agency (AEA) has disbursed N1.98 billion to 5, 317 to businesses, cooperatives and People Living with Disabilities (PLWD) in the last two years.

    Its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Arabi Tukur who spoke yesterday during a news conference as part of activities to mark second year anniversary  of President Muhammadu Buhari, said during the period under review, the agency provided business development services to 1, 564 rural entrepreneurs. He added that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) administration has approved the establishment of 10 cottage centres in the rural communities in April 2017.

    He said so far, the agency has successfully established foru centres at Rimba and Nuku Communities (Abaji AC) for shea butter, Chikuku Community (Kwali AC) for Cassava value chain project, and Guito Community (Bwari AC) for fish.

    The projects, the AEA chief said are pilots and have gainfully engaged 250 individuals by creating 100 jobs.

    He said: “The FCT MfB which was established in 2013 by the FCT administration and being supervised by AEA was a deliberate effort in addressing the challenges faced by the MSMEs in accessing finances. It is a state level MfB with N100million capital holding. So far, it has over 20,000 clients and about 10,000 have accessed finances for their businesses.

    “One of the challenges facing entrepreneurs in the FCT is the difficulty in securing finances to facilitate business start-up and growth. The Agency has designed various initiatives and financial products to enable entrepreneurs have easy access to finance for their businesses. The Agency also was selected as the Special Purpose Vehicle for the FCT Administration on the disbursement of the CBN MSME Development Funds.

    “The Agency during the period under review, successfully disbursed a total of N1.98 billion to 5,317 businesses, cooperatives and PLWD.”

  • Marching orders to fraudulent cooperatives in Niger

    Unscrupulous cooperatives and financial organisations have got their marching orders in Niger State.

    The state government told them that the era of disappearing into thin air after taking people’s money has gone.

    Such fraudulent operators would be arrested and prosecuted, the government warned, adding that the monitoring mechanisms have been put in place to ensure that such fraudsters are exposed.

    The Head of Service, Yabagi Alhaji Sule lamented that a lot of people in the state have lost their money to fraudulent organisations and cooperatives while others have had stroke and died due to the shock received when news of the collapse of such financial institutions got to them.

    The state government made its position known at a meeting with stakeholders of the Nigeria Union of Teachers Social Security Scheme (NUT ENDWELL) held in Minna, the state capital, declaring that the state government would no longer condone a situation where schemes are formed and used to siphon people’s money.

    The Head of Service said that any individual or organisation found wanting would face the wrath of the law while warning the people to be cautious in whatever cooperatives or organisation they wish to put invest their money.

    Yabagi commended the NUT ENDWELL Scheme for seeking deliberate shift from the social welfare thinking to coordinated actions designed to protect the contributors from economic and social deprivation arising from retirement from formal jobs and sudden health challenges.

    In his address, the Niger state Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Comrade Ibrahim Umar said the strategic plan workshop is meant to chart a new path for the organization and transform the NUT ENDWELL towards securing the social economic well-being of its members before and after retirement.

    He said that the NUT ENDWELL has 23,184 members drawn from primary, post-primary and other education agencies in the state, adding that the ENDWELL Micro-finance Bank has established a capital base of N100 million.

  • Creating wealth through cooperatives

    Creating wealth through cooperatives

    Creating wealth and eradicating poverty require the painstaking building of new entrepreneurs through cooperatives. The President, Project Fix Nigeria, Mr. Olusegun Kowontan, is leading a movement in this direction. Daniel Essiet reports.

    According to development experts, entrepreneurs and business enterprises create wealth, not government; government only provides the enabling environment for the private sector to thrive and create wealth.

    The President, Project Fix Nigeria, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Mr. Olusegun  Kowontan,  believes that when this happens, it will be easier to lift people out of poverty through wealth creation cooperatives.

    He noted that by spreading risk and pooling resources,  co-operatives will offer people with little individual wealth a way to start their own businesses and build assets.

    To this end, he said Project Fix Nigeria has launched a  cooperative for Nigerians who believe in  eradicating poverty and hunger. He said people can participate either as partner farmers or absentee farmers.

    Olusegun explained that the goal of the initiative is two-fold: to fulfill the protein requirements of the people at a low cost and to create livelihood opportunities for farmers and retirees.

    According to him, there  is a real and urgent need for farmers and  entrepreneurs  to gain access to alternative livelihoods given the long gestation periods for arable  crops and fruit trees to yield fruits or become harvestable, compared to fish farming, for instance, that takes a shorter time.

    Olusegun said his organisation is promoting reshwater fish culture and cage culture that will explore freshwater and brackish water bodies in Lagos State for fish farming.

    The project, he said, also focuses on integrated farming utilising the resources of public and private ponds and backwaters.

    The system, according to him, is highly profitable and the yield is about three times more, with relatively low costs compared to land based fish farming.

    While cooperative farming is desirable for full scale fish cage farming, he said it requires large capital.  And to overcome this challenge, he said his organisation is opening an opportunity for small investors to participate in the project.

    He explained that the biggest challenge for fish farmers is adequate water and this will not be a problem for cage culture.

    He said entrepreneurs have to be empowered if the government is to make a head at reducing poverty.

    This is because they introduce innovations and business ventures that generate profits and spur investment and growth.

  • Fed. Govt. urged to encourage cooperatives

    The president, Ministry of Defence Staff Agricultural Cooperative Society (MODACS), Comrade Babatunde Gbadamosi has said the federal government is not doing enough to strengthen the cooperative system in the country, saying that a well-structured cooperative system will eradicate poverty.

    Gbadamosi made this known during the 10th anniversary of MODACS, at which he said that the need to help civil servants get loans prompted the formation of the society.

    According to him, “government is not doing enough in terms of cooperative management, the cooperative is structured that in every state you have Director of Cooperatives, you have people who monitor how cooperative should function, I think government needs to strengthen those areas properly, because if those areas are properly structured those offices will be able to properly manage and coordinate cooperatives.

    “I tell people that with cooperatives you will eradicate poverty in this country, I am convinced about that, but that is if the government institutions that are to oversee these things have the manpower, commitment, and zeal,” he added.

    He revealed that one of the things the cooperative does is to mobilise funds from all members to solve immediate need of members, stressing that the cooperative society has been able to empower its members through loans, acquiring electronic gadgets, land, houses, and even properties among others.

    The president disclosed further that in an effort to curb exploitation of civil servants by some banks and ‘kangaroo’ cooperative society that it would be giving loans to members and non-members of the society.

    “This is to take advantage of those civil servants who are not cooperators but who are being exploited by people who are giving them loans and outrageous conditions, because they are desperate they just take the money without looking at the condition,” Gbadamosi noted.

    He also said the society intends to go into transportation as part of its effort to diversifying its investment, adding; “now the sector is fairly messed up, but we do know that if we have it in a real format, we can do it properly, already we are in property sector, we have acquired land, and having it tomorrow our members at a very subsidised cost,” the president said.

    Meanwhile, presenting his paper on Mastering your Income Expansion, the guest speaker, Mr. Muyiwa

    Afolabi said many people wasted a lot of years holding on to a wish without a way, noting that there is need to build a very strong foundation not wishful thinking and religion gyrations.

    He added that expenditure thinking is synonymous with Nigerians, thus meeting unnecessary wants and needs, stressing that there is a culture that makes people in this country perpetually poor.

     

  • 2,523 cooperatives in Lagos database

    The Lagos State government yesterday said only 2,523 cooperatives societies have been captured in its database.

    The government said the number was a far cry from about 16,000 cooperative societies operating in the state.

    Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Dr. Olajide Bashorun, said this at a briefing as part of events to commemorate the 2015 International Day of Cooperatives in Alausa, Ikeja.

    He said the validation began two years ago, with 90 days grace given to the various societies.

    “About 2,523 cooperatives societies have so far validated their operation. What we found out was that over the years, we only captured the data of those registered.

    “ Those who have refused to have their data captured are operating illegally.

    “All societies that are yet to be captured should go to any cooperative area office nearest to them for the validation,” he said.

    According to him, the implication of those not in the directory was that they will be operating illegally and would be sanctioned by the government.

    Activities lined up for the celebration include visitation to care homes today (Thursday), special Jumat prayers on Friday, Novelty Match, at Agidingbi Grammar School on Saturday; annual lecture/raffle draws, inspection and exhibition, among others.

  • Fed Govt transfers cooperatives to Labour Ministry

    The Federal Government has transferred the Federal Department of Cooperatives from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity with immediate effect.

    Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity Dr. Clement Illoh said the transfer is contained in a letter from the office of the Head, Civil  Service of the Federation in accordance with the provisions of the Cooperatives Development Act CAP. 23 and Nigerian Cooperative Society Act CAP. N98.

    Dr. Illoh said in line with the transfer,  a Cooperative Department has been established in the Ministry, charged with the broad mandate of ensuring effective coverage, coordination and improved performance of Cooperative Departments of all sectors of the economy.

    He said co-operatives being a good means of alleviating poverty were key to the Transformation Agenda of the government. He assured of the Labour Ministry’s commitment to best practices, delivery of quality services and restoration of people’s confidence in Cooperative Administration in Nigeria.

    He announced the appointment of Mrs. Mojisola Sonubi as the Director of Co-operative Development in the Ministry and directed that the Cooperative Officers in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should return with all the documents, records and registers relevant to Cooperative Development in the country, back to the Department of Cooperatives in the Labour Ministry not later than 15th April.

    Mrs. Sonubi on her part called on the States Departments of Cooperatives, Federation of Cooperative Colleges, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), other relevant national cooperative organisations and special agencies to cooperate with the Ministry’s Cooperative Department as the coordination centre for cooperative activities in the country.

  • Still on Agric production and cooperatives

    SIR: The agricultural sector is one of the most important components of the economy. Its importance cannot be over-emphasised as productive agriculture offers many benefits: food for domestic consumption; raw materials for agro – allied industries; employment that generates income, which in turn encourages other industrial, commercial and service activities and export markets for foreign exchange earning.

    Indeed, agriculture has made significant impacts on Gross Domestic output until the oil boom era of the 1970s and early 1980s, when there was change in emphasis away from agriculture.

    The production of agricultural crops and livestock has not kept pace with population growth and rising demand. Thus, there is the need to prioritise rapid agricultural production to achieve national food security, especially as the country is endowed with immense human, natural and agricultural resources.

    • Abolarin Tayo

     Kwara state university      

  • ‘Establish cooperatives societies’

    The Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Cross River has directed immediate establishment of 10 cooperative societies in each of the 18 local government areas of the state.

    The Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr James Aniyom, gave the directive at a stakeholders’meeting in Calabar.

    “The purpose of the cooperatives is to coordinate and monitor all projects within and those coming into the state for such cooperatives.

    “We need real farmers and not imaginary ones who benefit from farm produce and collect loans, yet have no farm to show for it,” he said.

    He said such cooperatives should cover rice, cassava, fishery, vegetables, livestock and aquaculture.

    He also directed the publication of all cooperatives in the state, including their location, saying that this would stimulate synergy among the cooperatives societies.

    According to him, the Cross River Government is keen on having a database of farmers in the state and what they produce.

    He promised to reach out to all ‘genuine’farmers and monitor their farms to provide them with logistics support when necessary.