By DADA AYOKHAI
The Edo State Ministry of Business, Trade, and Cooperatives has concluded plans to organize a two-day training programme for cooperative societies based in the state.
The training programme, an initiative of the Edo Cooperatives Federation is to be co-sponsored by GIZ, the German development aid agency.
It is envisaged that the training programme will expose the cooperative societies and their members to the changing trends in the laws governing the operations of the cooperative movement.
With the theme: “Understanding Your Law and Cooperatives in the 21st Century, the training will take place in the three senatorial districts of the state namely, Edo South between the 8th and the 9th of November before it finally berths in Edo Central on the 15th and 16 while Edo North turn is slated for 20_22 of November respectively.
Credible sources confided in our reporter that the shift in focus to the laws governing the operations of the cooperatives may not be unconnected with the recent legal loopholes noticed in the management of the cooperatives and which often resulted in many of them becoming insolvent.
In particular, Hon Afie Braimoh, the Edo State Commissioner of Business, Trade, and Cooperatives, has in recent months devoted a significant portion of her ministry’s resources and efforts on designing a series of incentives and programmes to empower the local MSME’s in the state, in a bid to bring them up to par with their counterparts elsewhere.
Some of these include training on modern management techniques, sponsorships to both local and foreign trade exhibitions and trade fairs, access to credit, workshops on branding, packaging, and a host of other activities, all directed towards improving their proficiency and efficiency.
According to some stakeholders, the timing of the training is most auspicious as it would help to save the cooperatives from collapse, adding that the cooperative societies are comparable to the banks by being the last hope of the downtrodden since the society as a whole cannot afford their extinction.
