The Gombe State government has flagged off Cooperative Reactivation project in the state designed to revive the sub-sector which has been moribund for years.
While flagging off the reactivation project in Gombe on Wednesday, Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya said his administration would continue to come up with innovative ideas in its determination to tackle the increasing rate of unemployment, poverty and the consequential effects on criminality in the state.
He noted that the concept of cooperative has been globally acknowledged as an efficient instrument for delivering social and economic benefits to the people.
“Studies and surveys have shown that cooperatives in Africa are contributing significantly to the socio-economic development of both the rural and urban communities,” the governor said.
Inuwa observed that in Nigeria, cooperatives have been in the forefront of social and economic integration since the colonial era.
He said even in the old Gombe division, cooperatives were crucial in the production and marketing of quality food and cash crops, thereby providing a sustainable source of wealth and livelihood to the people.
The governor explained that as the role and nature of cooperatives keep evolving, the objectives remain the same, which is to create jobs, generate and distribute wealth among the people and enhance social development.
He said in order for cooperatives to continue playing these roles, they must be effectively organised, managed and regulated in line with best practices, adding that the goal of the cooperative reactivation project is to reposition the sector in the state for greater impact and better performance.
The governor said his administration intends to achieve the feat by December 2022 according to the programme.
“To realise this objective, government has engaged a consultant, Cooperative Development Foundation, in order to assist in managing the project in addition to the foundation preparing a department of cooperative in the Ministry of Rural Development and Cooperatives to take over in managing the project through capacity building and knowledge transfer,” he said.
He enjoined the stakeholders to give their maximum cooperation to the government and the consultants in order to ensure the successful implementation of the project.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Rural Development and Cooperatives, Usman Mohammed Jahun Biri, said the project was proposed in 2020 and recently approved by the State House of Assembly in order to reactivate moribund cooperative societies in the state.
