NAN
Edo Government says it is planning to rebrand and strengthen 3, 000 cooperative societies in the state for better service delivery to the people.
Emmanuel Usoh, Edo Commissioner for Wealth Creation, Cooperatives and Employment, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin on Tuesday.
The commissioner said that although there were about 40,000 cooperatives in the state, but noted that only 3, 000 of them were active and would be strengthened.
He said that government’s plan was to make the 3, 000 cooperatives more functional to serve as tools for job creation and to boost economic activities in the state particularly, in the grassroots.
“We want to organise a workshop to train cooperatives and link them to sources of interest free funding.
“For Agriculture cooperatives, we want to get some farmers ‘off takers’ (ready buyers) and also organise farmers’ trade fairs.
“We believe that if farm produces are bought from the farmers at competitive prices, this will stimulate the local economy and create more jobs” Usoh said.
He also said that during the workshop, members would be educated on activities and functions of cooperatives so they could hold their executives accountable seamlessly.
“There are some cooperatives in Edo where the executives have refused to conduct election even after their tenure had expired.
“While others do not read the annual financial statement for members to know the true state of their accounts,” he stated.
The commissioner added that after the workshop, cooperatives would no longer view real estate as the only investment option but begin to consider other areas such as agriculture, marketing among others as veritable goldmines.