Cooperative Bank to Begin Operation in January 2019

• Cooperative Bank to Begin Operation in January 2019

The President, Cooperative Federation of Nigeria, Mr Tajudeen Adeola, has said the proposed Cooperative Bank will commence operations by January next year, barring any last-minute change in plans.

Adeola stated this on Wednesday in Abuja at the 4th National Cooperative Summit.

He said that in line with the aspirations of its members that the Cooperative Federation of Nigeria should embark on strategies that would result in the establishment of a cooperative bank.

He said the bank would attend to the needs of its members, having lost the former one to the bank consolidation exercise by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2005.

Adeola said, “The consultant on this project is in our midst; we hope to come up with affirmative actions on how to raise the sum of N3bn required as the Cooperative Movement’s share capital in the proposed bank.

“All things being equal, our bank is expected to start business come January 1, 2019.”

According to him, the cooperative is already contributing over N150bn to the Lagos State government’s Gross Domestic Product annually because of its strategic role in the economy.

He explained that if proper legislation was put in place to drive operations of cooperatives in the country, they would contribute over 20 per cent to the nation’s GDP.

‘’Our worry today is that the contribution of cooperatives are 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,” Adeola added.