Cooperative careers as wealth creators
Cooperatives are strong platforms for the development of small businesses in the world. Considering the low access to credit and other facilities which in turn have contributed to high unemployment in the country, cooperatives could become relevant avenue for wealth creation.
A cooperative is a business or organization owned by and operated for the benefit of those using its services. Profits and earnings generated by the cooperative are distributed among the user-owners who are members.
Some of the characteristics of cooperatives include that they are autonomous association of persons, voluntary, and for mutual social, economic, and cultural benefit.
When certain groups of people, usually not less than seven, of like mind with singular objective gather together to form an enterprise achieve that particular goal, they are said to be a cooperative. In Nigeria, cooperatives are energizing different aspects of the economy from housing, to arts, agriculture and services.
The role of cooperatives in economic development was re-echoed at the just concluded Cooperative Career Conference in Abuja last Friday. The two-day event which had ‘Cooperative Enterprise, Achieving Sustainable Development for all’ as its theme, focused on integrating the agricultural value-chains in agro-production.
The event organized by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) had participants from Business Women Association (BWA), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Rural Finance Institution of Nigeria (RUFIN), the Association of Non-Bank Micro Financial Institutions of Nigeria (ANMFIN), different cooperatives from the 36 states among others.
Participants shared experiences and international best practices on career cooperatives. The CBN sent a paper which harped on youth
Youths of same ideology and skills should form groups, with members not less than ten. After registration, they should go to the Ministry of Rural Development and Cooperatives to register so that they will get government recognition
and women inclusion into the financial cooperative decision making process. RUFIN’s AbdulAzeez and Adamu Ibrahim spoke on agricultural value chain financing among cooperatives and fundamentals of agricultural lending respectively.
Also speaking, the executive secretary of ANMFIN, Godbless Safugha highlighted the areas of the institutions partnership or support to cooperatives. These are: Capacity building, financial linkage, advocacy and regulation.
But it was the exhibition by the Abia State Farmers’ Cooperative Union Ltd (AFCUL) that served as eye-opener to participants. Using the cassava staple plant, the cooperative showed the various derivatives and market opportunities in its value chains. Thus it processed out of cassava flour, bread, cake, chips, garri, pounded staple food among others.
The Abia State Farmers’ Cooperative showed how they built a defined production chain of input, field, aggregators, processors, marketers and to the consumers.
Drawing from the recognition of its achievement, President of AFCUL, Nwogwugwu Uzoma, emphasized the need for government to encourage cooperatives and skilled youths of like-mind to come together to form cooperatives. He gave a guide on how to form one.
“Youths of same ideology and skills should form groups, with members not less than ten. After registration, they should go to the Ministry of Rural Development and Cooperatives to register so that they will get government recognition,” he advised.
He said the federal and state governments have expressed determination to reduce poverty through skills development and agriculture, adding “they can be assisted by ANMFIN based in Abuja. It is the institution that is monitoring the activities of affiliated cooperatives in their financing.”
He however expressed regrets that cooperatives are not receiving the needed support from the various states government beyond microfinance institutions, international agricultural organisations and the CBN.
“AFCUL has not received any support from the Abia State government. In Abia there are 510 primary cooperative societies consisting of twenty five thousand seven hundred and eleven individual farmers presently in the three senatorial zones. They are divided into crops and livestock farmers,” he said.
Uzoma’s comments should be food for thought for policy makers in initiating programmes that can streamline, fund, and monitor cooperatives especially, among youths determined to go into it.
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has set agenda for youth agricultural skills acquisition as a means of creating jobs. It is welcome development for a country that churns out over 80, 000 corpers in each batch of the three service batches.
Indeed, with interaction such as the Cooperative Career Conference in Abuja, Nigerians especially youths will begin to tap into cooperatives as an avenue to harness the country’s rich agricultural endowments and create the value chains in all major crops thereby creating wealth.