By Francis Akinnodi
Stakeholders have said that Cooperative Societies play important roles in global, national, economic and social development.
They said with regard to economic and social development, cooperatives have been proved to be the only amicable means of business production to promote the fullest participation of all people and facilitate a more equitable distribution of the benefits of globalisation.
They said this a different interview with The Hope in Akure recently.
Ondo State Cooperative Federation (ODSCOFED) President, Engr. Michael Olowoyeye said cooperatives contribute to sustainable human development and have an important role to play in combating social exclusion.
He said, “Thus the promotion of cooperatives should be considered at all levels of government as one of the pillars of national and international economic and social development.
He noted that cooperatives have employ more than 100 million men and women globally with target on mobilisation of resources for income generation
Olowoyeye explained that cooperatives also uplift members from degradation and poverty through low interest rate loan.
“The concept of cooperative is to ensure that the goods and services available and supplied are cheaper than what obtains elsewhere.
“The present economic state of Nigeria is gradually eroding the gains of cooperative society through mismanagement and I’ll practices which require immediate intervention and specific strategies to keep the cooperative enterprise afloat in order to remain relevant in the preset highly competitive economy.”
Secretary, ODSCOFED, Olayode Oluwarotimi said the cooperative system has progressed as a powerful mechanism for the realisation of economic growth in the state and Nigerian in general.
He said ODSCOFED is more committed to strengthening the cooperative operations in the state.
He noted that building a better cooperative enterprise in a competitive economy aimed at ensuring the cooperative thrive in the midst of stiff competition in the financial sector of the economy.
