The President of Cooperative Federation of Nigeria (CFN), Chief Tajudeen Oriyomi Ayeola, has said it is floating a national cooperative bank which will begin operations in January 2019.
Chief Oriyomi disclosed this in his message to the fourth National Cooperative Summit held in Abuja yesterday.
He said, “We hope to come up with affirmative action on how to raise N3bn required as the cooperative movement’s share capital in the proposed bank; in short all things being equal, our bank is expected to start business on January 1, 2019.”
He further said since the former cooperative bank was lost to consolidation exercise by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2005, CFN members had been yearning for an independent bank that would be catering for their needs.
Oriyomi said preliminary work and the registration of a new cooperative bank was already on course and that the cooperative was contributing over N150bn to the Lagos State Government’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) because of its strategic role in uplifting the lives and welfare of the members.
‘‘Our worry today is that the contribution of cooperatives is yet to be captured in the national GDP, otherwise, government would have paid more attention to the sector like several other countries to help better grow the economy, especially in creating jobs, he said.
In his paper presentation titled: ‘’Rebranding Cooperative for Efficiency and National Economic Development’’, at the occasion, the Guest Speaker, Mr. Lucky Inegbenosun, called on members to look beyond drawing loans for burial, naming and marriage ceremonies.
