ABUJA – The Director of Co-operatives, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Dickson Okoro, on Tuesday in Abuja assured that the Federal Government was committed to transforming co-operative societies in the country.
Okoro who said this at a three-day Co-operatives Summit and Leadership Forum said the Federal Government would review the present co-operatives policy.
He said this would be part of efforts to address the challenges being faced by the sector.
“I can assure that every support the co-operatives will need in order to grow and take their rightful position in dealing with micro financial challenges and performances will be provided by the ministry,’’ the director said.
Okoro said government was aware of the various challenges facing the co-operative societies and expressed optimism that solutions would be proffered before the end of the summit.
“We are aware of some of the challenges of the co-operatives and, as part of the commitment of the ministry, a new revised co-operatives scheme is being done.
“This will certainly address some of the challenges of co-operatives in the country. The job is almost completed and stakeholders will be carried along when the final document is being prepared.
“ By the time it finally comes out, it will be a document that every stakeholder will be pleased with,’’ he said.
The director said there had been challenges in the preparation of the document, especially in the amendment of CAP C20 and CAP T14 Co-operatives Law.
“We discovered that the co-operatives law is not comprehensive and so many things have been left out and, if we must reform, those things must be handled.
“We want organisational structures to be put in place as we reform and transform the sector. We are also working on institutions which are meant to provide services.
“We are looking at their curriculum to see how they can get closer to the grassroots and not just remain in those locations where they are not touching the financial co-operatives,’’ he said.
Okoro said the Federal Government was also in the process of making the National Co-operatives Development Centre (NCDC) more valuable to the co-operative societies.
“We are training cooperative inspectors at the centre, so that they can be more effective in providing support to financial co-operatives.’’
He harped on the importance of the Co-operatives Data Analysis System, which he said would ensure that all co-operatives were brought to the national platform.
The director also said government was working hard to improve the image of co-operatives.
He said there were about 125,000 co-operatives in the country, while only 11,000 have been encoded.
Okoro however said the ministry intended to encode about 50 co-operatives in 2014.
Earlier, Mr Giwa Afolabi, the National President of Non-Bank Micro Finance Association of Nigeria, said co-operatives were a “major player’’ in the world.
Afolabi however said one of the major challenges faced by the co-operatives was the issue of government asking individuals to form groups to enable them access government schemes.
“When governments ask individuals to form co-operatives, people gather together and form co-operatives just to access the facilities by the government.
“They collect the funds and disappear and in turn create bad images for co-operatives. When there are such schemes, governments should rather ask these people to register in existing co-operatives.
“This will help retain the image of co-operatives,’’ Afolabi said.
The summit was attended by representatives of the CBN Governor and the Bank of Agriculture.
The Executive Director, African Confederation of Co-operative Savings and Credit Associations, Mr George Ombado, was also in attendance.(NAN)
