President of Ogun State Cooperative Federation Limited (OGSCOFED), Alh. Wasiu Olaleye has described cooperative societies as key to the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
Olaleye stated this during the cooperative’s annual inter-religious prayer session to herald the 2022 business activities of the society.
He stated that the cooperative society was established in 1976 to foster the interest and harness the resources of members and to take the necessary steps to prevent any threats to their economic independence.
Olaleye maintained that cooperative societies remained the economic engine of any country as they provide financial assistance to more than one quarter of SMES in states.
“Cooperative society is the economic buffer to any country; we finance more than a quarter of major small and medium businesses in the state.
“And these data are not just from my hand but from survey conducted by GIZ, a German agency for international corporation working with the state.
“GIZ made a research conducted 2 years ago and it was specifically stated that about 26% of the business in the state are getting their finance from corporative society. This percentage of the people operating small business in the state, so it cannot be neglected,” he posited.
Secretary of the society, Mr David Ayelabola further reiterated that the prayer session was in its 5th year running, adding that the practice was to commit the society and its members to God for a successful business year.
Ayelabola maintained that though 2021 was though owing to the Covid-19 pandemic ravaging the world, the society still managed to declare surpluses to members at the last annual general meeting in December, 2021.
The Christian prayer session was offered by Rev. Gbenga Oluwasanya, and the Muslim session was delivered by Sheikh Alao Adenekan.
