The Board of Management of Cooperative Federation of Anambra State (COFAS) Limited has developed an action plan for the development of the cooperative business structure for accelerated grassroots mobilization, social transformation and sustainable socio-cultural and economic development of the state.
The President of COFAS, Dr. Ogochukwu Soludo, made the disclosure while unveiling the program of the new COFAS Management Board at a rally and public exhibition in Awka, showcasing the diverse products, goods and services from the cooperative sector across the 21 divisional cooperative councils, 179 communities and 326 wards of Anambra State.
The program was part of the activities organized to celebrate the 2025 edition of International Day of Cooperatives on Saturday, July 5, 2025.
Dr Soludo observed that the cooperative sector had huge, untapped potentials that need to be fully harnessed towards stimulating bottom-top economic empowerment and growth in the state. According to him, COFAS is fully inclined to lead the way.
COFAS is the apex body that unites all registered cooperative societies in Anambra State. It is the rallying-point for them to join forces together in order to make a positive and lasting impact.
COFAS is the organization that has the statutory mandate, under the Nigerian Cooperative Societies Act 98 of 2004, to mobilize, mentor, motivate, organize and galvanize the sector to massive meaningful contributions towards the socio-cultural and economic advancement of the state,. COFAS also has the responsibility to promote, protect, defend and represent the interests of cooperatives, cooperarors and affiliates within and outside Anambra State, both nationally and internationally.
Currently, there are 18,500 registered cooperative societies in the state.
However a very high percentage of them are not non-performing or inactive.
Nevertheless, a very good number of the cooperators within the performing ones are very active players in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector of the economy, being actively engaged in creative industries, home-grown innovations and entrepreneurship: commerce, industry, agriculture, transport and logistics, as well as, ancillary support services.
However, cooperative businesses face daunting challenges: ranging from lack of adequate support, encouragement and motivation from relevant government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs), funding agencies, development partners and regulatory agencies, lack of access to crucial information, access to capital and access to markets, lack of training and capacity building opportunities, etc.
With support and backing from the government other relevant stakeholders and partners, development partners COFAS determined and passionately committed to upscaling the standards and turning around the fortunes of cooperative societies in such a way that will bring about massive transformation in the social and economic landscape of the state.
Pursuant to this and other noble objectives, the apex cooperative body has inititiaed the process of setting up COFAS-MSME Forum to give effect to
the desire to make the cooperative sector more practical, more productive, more purposeful, value-driven, and result-oriented.
The idea is to strongly mainstream home-grown innovative solutions, creativity and entrepreneurship in cooperative enterprises for enhanced productivity.
This will help to accelerate industrialization, stimulate economic growth, promote self-reliance and sustenance, wealth creation and poverty reduction across the COFAS catchment areas within the 21 Divisional Cooperative Councils, 179 communities and 326 Wards of Anambra State.
Accordingly, the COFAS-MSME FORUM serves as the special purpose vehicle (SPV) and rallying-point for the large army of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) within the fold of the18,500 registered cooperative societies in Anambra State, to streamline their operations to meet regulatory and funding requirements.
It is also designed to give cooperative businesses the wings to fly by creating a credible platform from which cooperates and stakeholders will work jointly together and in synergy with MDAs (government ministries, departments and agencies), regulatory and funding agencies, development partners and the organized private sector, to address the multifaceted challenges that tend to cripple cooperative enterprises, like: business registration and regulatory requirements, capacity building, banking, management, production, processing and packaging; cash-flow, documentation, access to credit or capital, access to markets, relationship with funding and regulatory agencies, quality assurance (standardization) and certification etc.
Cooperative Federation of Anambra State will definitely achieve the stated objectives through team work, combined efforts, cooperation, collaboration and networking
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