COOPERATIVE SOCIETY: A VEHICLE FOR ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

 

The economic empowerment of any group of people or community is key to their sustainable development and growth.

WHY COPERATIVE SOCIETY?

The cooperative society is one vehicle that has been deployed over the years to help groups of people pool their resources which are then deployed in more profitable and financially rewarding investment which are capital intensive and might not be easy for the members to engage in individually.

ADVANTAGES OF COOPERATIVE SOCIETY

The advantages of cooperative society are numerous and include but not limited to the following;

1.       Helps  pool huge capital to invest in capital intensive ventures.

2.       It allows individual freedom to choose their level of participation according to available resources.

3.       It offers additional income to members.

4.       It could serve as a safety nest to members by providing small loans in emergency.

5.       It can also provide gainful employment to members or others in the community.

6.       It offers members access to affordable products by discounting their own products and through bulk purchases.

7.       Members can also use this vehicle to get land whereby the cooperative acquires land in hectares and sell to members in smaller plots.

TYPES OF COOPERATIVE SOCIETY

There are different types of cooperative societies including but not limited to the following:

1.       Consumer cooperative

2.       Agricultural cooperative

3.       Multi-purpose cooperative

Whilst others are narrow and more specific in their scope, multi-purpose cooperative society has a wider scope and can serve many purposes.

SETTING UP A COOPERATIVE SOCIETY

The first aspect of setting up a cooperative society is the membership. Members are often drawn from a homogenous community or group such as employees in an organisation, group of farmers in an area or region, members of a profession or social club.

The other stages are as follows:

•       Decision by members on amounts of money they can afford and intend to be contributing periodically, usually monthly.

•         Itemizing the ventures the cooperative would like to engage. Some of the possible businesses

             a.       Soap making for which there is already an existing market (members and the church   itself) and the general community.

             b.      Making of other household consumables which are needed in homes daily.(the assembly pastor can advise further on this area)

            c.       Dry cleaning and laundry services. This is one area that members have need of and have to patronize outsiders.

           d.      Fish farming and many others.

•              Preparation of a draft constitution. Some of the issues that also need to be agreed and documented in the constitution include tenure of executives, election of executives, management and reporting on the operations of the cooperative and so on.
•            Registration with the state ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative.
•           Invitation of officials of the state ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative to inaugurate the co-operative.  

CONCLUSION
Cooperative societies are a powerful vehicle that can help large numbers of people get out of poverty and can become  far more important than even micro finance banks in economic growth and development.

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