South East co-operatives to float regional bank with N10 billion capital

Thousands of cooperative groups in the five South East states under the aegis of South East States Cooperative Financing and Investment Limited (SESCOOP) are set to revive the moribund regional Cooperative Bank Limited, with an initial N10 billion as take-off capital, to drive deeper operations of micro and small businesses (MSMEs) in the region, BusinessDay can report.

Authoritative information made available to our correspondent indicate that SESCOOP top officials have already got favourable dispositions from the nation’s banking regulatory body, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to float the cooperative bank.

It was reliably gathered that the CBN, while largely supporting the move; has advised the movers of the regional cooperative bank idea, SESCOOP, to fly fast with the idea, and get it established; saying that such institution clearly falls in line with CBN’s aim of promoting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), for which it has since set up a funding agency – the micro, small and medium enterprises development fund (MSMEDF).

In an interview with BusinessDay, in Owerri, Imo State, a top member of the SESCOOP and one of the brains behind the establishment of the Cooperative Bank, Peter Erika Okoye said, cooperative groups constitute the greatest change agents in empowering rural dwellers and the urban poor people, through the establishment of micro businesses; adding that it is these MSMEs that generate jobs for the unemployed.

“Only a Cooperative Bank understands the positions of a little pig farmer, a ground-nut seller, and fish farmer cooperatives and promotes them through advancement of micro-credits to the individual cooperative societies at little interest rates that would make it possible for them to pay back their loans. The deposit money banks (otherwise called commercial banks) would ask for collaterals, higher interest rates, which would discourage cooperative bodies from coming up to ask for loans. So, that’s why we are setting up the Cooperative Bank,” Okoye said.

Okoye, who is also the chief executive officer (CEO) of Rhino Energy Limited in Anambra State, informed that the Cooperative Bank, when established would be typically a regional bank, devoted to promoting cooperative development in the South East by advancing cheap micro loan facilities at very minimal interest rates to cooperative societies.

“We have about 10,000 cooperative societies in Imo State alone. In Anambra there may be nearly twice that number. When you take these numbers across the five states of the South East zone, you can only imagine how many cooperatives I am talking about here. But the sad thing is that almost all of these cooperative groups lack access to micro-credits. As a result, most of them are only struggling,” he stated.

He recalled how the late Obafemi Awolowo, as premier of the Western Region had provided then about £25 million to promote the establishment of hundreds of farmers cooperative groups in the region – the result of this was the massive growth of cooperative societies – leading up to the building of the Cocoa House in Ibadan.

Today, he said the South West zone leads the rest of the country in cooperative movement and micro-businesses.

“In the East, we had the Eastern Region Cooperative Bank, which later metamorphosed into the Cooperative and Commerce Bank, which helped a lot in promoting micro and small businesses then. We want to bring up again this Bank, especially at this time that all over the world, nations are developing faster through their cooperative groups which run micro, small and medium businesses. Besides, our own Central Bank of Nigeria is interested in promoting micro, small and medium businesses.” the SESCOOP boss said.

He spoke of how SESCOOP in recent time, has been sensitizing people through massive cooperative education in the zone, on the benefits of forming a cooperative or belonging to one.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey Samuel, the president of SESCOOP, said there is an urgent need for the South East zone to catch up with other parts of Nigeria, as well as other developing countries in Africa that have made great achievements with cooperative movement.

Such countries are: Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Namibia, among many others.

Okoye informed that in order to whet the environment for cooperative culture and take-off of the regional Cooperative Bank, SESCOOP has concluded arrangements to hold an international cooperative investment forum in the South East later in the year. The conference which would also include exhibition of cooperative products, would showcase some of latest successes made by some developing countries through cooperative society.

 

BEN EGUZOZIE