Cooperatives director, UN consultant, governors speak at S’East Cooperatives Investment Forum in Owerri

Dickson Okolo, the federal director of cooperatives, Department of Cooperatives in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and E. Lenou, UN consultant on beekeeping, will lead other international experts on cooperatives concept as the South East Cooperatives Investment Forum/exhibition opens today in Owerri, Imo State.

The forum, the first of its kind east of the River Niger, organised by thousands of registered cooperative societies in the region under the aegis of SESCOOP Financing and Investment Cooperative Limited, has as theme: “Developing non-Petroleum based Economy in South East Nigeria,” and would hold at The Mall Aladinma, Owerri.

Okolo would be looking at “Oil palm Sector as Lead Crop in Developing a non-Petroleum bases Economy in South East Nigeria,” in what would lay the groundwork to latch on to diversify the South East economy, using the non-oil sector, driven by organised private sector operators.

On his part, Lenou, of Greek origin, who has been consulting for the UN on beekeeping, and also the world president of International First Aid Society, would be speaking on “modern beekeeping and export.”

Meanwhile, the governors of the five states of South East: Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Willie Obiano (Anambra), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), David Umahi (Ebonyi) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) are expected to deliver keynote addresses on their economic direction, and to leverage the forum to harness the non-petroleum sectors of their respective state’s economy.

BusinessDay understood that the event would be used by the experts and over 2,500 participants to open up opportunities that exist and have long been hidden in cooperative business enterprise, and would effectively take advantage of a changing global financing architecture to highlight attention on cooperative societies in the region as the finance intermediation and funding groups involved in the development metrics of social capital formation, knowledge creation and poverty alleviation.

This is more so, as there appears an urgent need to diversify the Nigerian economy, and creating new revenue sources, following the downward plunge in its mono-economy crude oil, with the attendant negative effects on the micro-economies of the federating states.

Also, Benneth Nwanguma, a professor at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), would dwell on Biotechnology as a key component in creating non-oil based economy.

For Henry Nwawuba, managing director of Fortis Microfinance Bank and a member of the Federal House of Representatives, representing Mbaitoli/Ikeduru Federal Constituency, his paper would dwell on “Access and Management of Micro-credits as Key to Development of non-Petroleum Based Economy in South East Nigeria.”

“This (SESCOOP investment forum) would be the best occasion for our South East governors to see the best and most recent achievements as well as services and products offered by all the cooperative societies in the South East zone,” Geoffrey Samuel, president of SESCOOP, told BusinessDay in an interview.

Seeing the urgent need to open up vast opportunities existing in the cooperative movement, but which are largely hidden to operators in the South East region, SESCOOP has been at the vanguard of re-jigging the region’s economy through cooperatives societies’ participation.

 

BEN EGUZOZIE