Nigeria has launched a nationwide sensitisation programme to establish a dedicated cooperative bank and digitise the cooperative sector to support small industries. The initiative began with a South-West zonal engagement in Lagos recently.
Minister Unveils Plans for Cooperative Bank
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Aliyu Abdullahi, made this known at the start of the ‘Southwest Zone Ministerial Advocacy Tour on Cooperative Bank of Nigeria: Share Capital Mobilisation and Cooperative Sector Digitalisation Drive’. He said the initiative aimed to reposition cooperatives as drivers of inclusive growth, financial inclusion, and food security. He stressed that the initiatives are crucial for creating a modern, structured, transparent and globally competitive cooperative ecosystem in Nigeria.
According to him, cooperatives globally have proven effective in mobilising grassroots capital, stimulating local production and reducing poverty. He noted that the proposed Cooperative Bank of Nigeria will be 65 per cent owned by cooperative societies and individual cooperators, with 30 per cent held by private and institutional investors and the remaining five per cent by employees. He stressed that the project is government-enabled but not government-funded and designed to preserve cooperatives while meeting modern financial standards.
Digitalisation Framework Introduced
Alongside the bank, the ministry has introduced a digitalisation framework featuring a cooperative verification number for societies and a CoopID for members, both linked to the National Identity Number (NIN) system. The data push, he said, would boost investor confidence and give the sector the credibility needed to attract financing and scale.
Speaking, the Lagos Commissioner of Commerce, Cooperatives, Trade and Investment, Folashade Ambrose-Medebem, said Lagos was repositioning its cooperative ecosystem to support industrialisation, food systems, job creation and inclusive prosperity. She added that the vision of building a one trillion dollar economy cannot be achieved through macroeconomic policy alone, but requires strong economic institutions, especially at the grassroots.
She went on to say that Nigeria must reposition its cooperative ecosystem not merely as a social intervention platform, but as a critical component of national economic transformation. According to her, the state government has intensified the deployment of digital registration processes, electronic documentation systems, member data management platforms and technology-driven monitoring frameworks. This transition, she noted, is gradually eliminating manual bottlenecks, improving record accuracy, enhancing compliance and enabling real-time access to cooperative information for planning and policy formulation.
Access to Finance for MSMEs
Touching on improved access to finance for cooperative-based Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through the Lagos State Micro Enterprise Support Initiative, she said that through strategic intervention financing and cooperative-based lending structures, thousands of entrepreneurs, traders, women-led enterprises and youth-owned businesses have gained access to affordable capital for business expansion and productive economic activities.
She went on to reveal that the financial intervention is about to be further scaled up as the State is set to kick off the disbursement of 10 billion Naira under the Lagos State-Bank of Industry Access to Finance for SMEs through Cooperatives (LASMECO) programme. “The State has already released Five Billion, it’s part of the matched funding. In a few days, we will formally onboard the accelerators in a formal signing ceremony, and after that, we will roll out media campaigns for applications from interested cooperative-based MSMEs. The LASMECO fund will give out up to 10 Million Naira at a single digit interest rate of nine per cent, with a six-month moratorium and up to a two-year window for repayment,” she said.
At a time when conventional financing remains inaccessible to many grassroots enterprises due to collateral constraints and high interest rates, cooperative financing continues to offer a practical and inclusive alternative for economic empowerment. “We understand that access to finance without strong governance structures can undermine sustainability. The proposed seven-pillar operational strategy appropriately recognises that cooperative transformation requires policy reform, institutional coordination, financial inclusion, technology adoption, human capital development, regulatory strengthening and grassroots empowerment working in synergy,” she added.
