The Ekiti State Government has commenced a capacity-building programme to equip cooperative societies with the knowledge, skills, and practical tools required to build strong, profitable, and sustainable cooperative institutions within the livestock value chain.

The government said that the livestock sector remains one of the most strategic sectors for economic growth, employment generation, food security, poverty reduction, and rural development.

The Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Mr Ebenezer Boluwade spoke yesterday in Ado Ekiti, at a training on Modern Cooperative Management and Operations in the Livestock Valuechain under the Ekiti State Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRES).

The Commissioner who was represented by the ministry’s Director of planning, research and statistics, Omolade Adeleye said cooperatives are not merely social organizations; they are business enterprises owned and managed by their members, noting that a successful cooperative must therefore operate with clear business objectives, sound governance systems, transparency, accountability, and prudent financial management.

“Unfortunately, many cooperatives face challenges such as weak leadership structures, poor record keeping, inadequate financial controls, limited business planning capacity, conflicts among members, and low participation in decision-making processes.

“These challenges often limit their ability to access credit, attract investment, negotiate favourable market opportunities, and achieve sustainable growth.

“It is against this backdrop that this training has become both necessary and timely. Over the course of this programme, participants will be exposed to critical aspects of cooperative management, including: Principles and practices of modern cooperative governance; Leadership responsibilities and accountability mechanisms.”

The commissioner listed other areas of training to include the financial management and record keeping systems; Budgeting and financial planning; Cooperative business planning and enterprise development;

Others are the Access to finance and investment opportunities; Collective marketing and value chain integration; Digital tools for cooperative administration; Conflict resolution and member engagement strategies; Gender and youth inclusion in cooperative development.

In his remarks, the state coordinator for L-Pres, Mr Adedipe Olayinka said that if the state would grow its economy, it is the cooperative society that would actually grow the economy.

“What we are trying to do here today is to bring the cluster heads together, the lead clusters, the lead teams so that they can know the essence of having a formidable cooperative society and how to run a cooperative society seamlessly.”

The Lead consultant for the training, Dr Abdulazeez Salau said that the core message of the training is that co-operative has come a long way and that globally, co-operative has been accepted as one of the models of mobility and innovation.

“So it is an opportunity to ensure that we blow the trumpet of the cooperative movement so that every nook and cranny of Nigeria can benefit from the cooperative movement.

“Since its establishment after the Second World War, at the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, cooperative has been a thing that ensures that people are sustained even with little government support.”