Ministers in Nigeria are planning drastic reforms for the co-ops sector, with plans for digitisation to modernise operations, ensure transparent financial reporting, maintain accurate records, and improve governance.
The federal government hopes the plans will help them identify fake co-operatives to ensure that state funding and support schemes goes to the right place, it has been reported.
Agriculture and food security minister Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi announced the plans, which will affect more than 30,000 registered co-ops, at a stakeholders’ meeting on the Review of the Nigerian Cooperative Societies Act.
“Digitalisation will strengthen co-operative institutions, increase trust, improve service delivery, reduce fraud, and unlock new opportunities across the cooperative economy,” he said, in a report of the meeting by the Nigerian Tribune.
Abdullahi said digitisation will be a central pillar of the co-op reform, to increase trust, improve service delivery, reduce fraud, and unlock new opportunities across the co-operative economy.
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Measures listed by the minister will include digital registration, a national co-operative database, and digital membership identification system and electronic documentation..
Co-operatives should be seen as strategic institutions capable of mobilising capital, he added, empowering citizens, creating jobs, driving agricultural productivity, and boosting the economy.
“This document will align with the International Cooperative Alliance – Africa Model Cooperative Law and the Africa Ministerial Declaration and Action Plan,” he said, “which Nigeria co-signed with other African ministers in Kenya during the 14th Africa Ministerial Cooperative Conference (AMCCO) in October 2025.”
Image of Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi: Kabusa16 / Wiki CC
