By Kehinde Ayantunji
The Special Adviser to Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State on Cooperative Matters, Barrister Gbenga Awosode, said the state government had registered more than 24,000 cooperative societies in the state towards economic growth.
Awosode disclosed this at a programme to mark the ‘International Cooperative Day‘ which recently held in Osogbo, with the theme: ‘Cooperative Ensures No One Is Left Behind’.
The programme was organised by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Cooperative in collaboration with Federation of Osun Cooperative Limited.
Awosode said more than 16,000 registered cooperative societies had benefited immensely from the state government grants towards wealth creation.
He said that the international cooperative day recognises and reaffirms the invaluable role of cooperative unions in social, economic and cultural development as well as in actualisation of social policy objectives of governments across the world.
“The essence of the annual celebration is principally to increase awareness about cooperative movement, highlight successes recorded by movement in the past years and to promote the core values and ideals of cooperative movement.”
He added “Celebration of the world Cooporative day also aims at strengthening the international cooperative movement, as well as building a strong partnership with other international actors including government, non-governmental organisations amongst others.
Awosode said despite the huge developmental value of cooperative societies, the unions were being confronted with myriad of challenges.
