The federal government and industry stakeholders are disputing the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security’s control over 370,000 cooperative societies in the agriculture, housing, credit, transport, and trade sectors.
The societies are registered and supervised under the ministry. However, critics argue that this arrangement is outdated and unfit for purpose, as many of the societies operate outside the agricultural space.
Recently, Abdullahi Sabi, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, announced a crackdown on illegal cooperative societies.
According to him, the federal government is taking proactive steps to reposition cooperatives through the Renewed Hope Cooperative Reform and Revamp Programme (RH-CRRP).
Sabi said, “Cooperatives today represent over 1 billion members worldwide, operate in over 100 countries, and provide over 280 million jobs, that’s almost 10% of the world’s employed population.
“In Nigeria, cooperatives are actively transforming lives across the agriculture, housing, credit, transportation, and trade sectors.”
He added, “We currently have over 370,000 registered cooperative societies with millions of members working to boost rural livelihoods, improve agricultural productivity, and expand financial inclusion, particularly among women and youth.”
Sabi emphasised that cooperative development has been prioritised as a strategic tool for poverty eradication, rural transformation, and inclusive growth.
As part of the reform, the ministry plans to implement policy and regulatory changes to improve governance and ease of doing business, digitalise cooperative registries at the federal and state levels, and provide capacity building on entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and enterprise development.
However, Nathan Nwachukwu, CEO of Terra Industry, believes it is time for cooperatives to be governed independently.
“Most cooperative societies are not agric-based, but in housing and other sectors,” Nwachukwu said. “The 1947 law is long outdated. So, there is so much that needs to be changed. And if you ask me personally, this is my personal opinion, at this juncture, Nigeria needs a Minister of Wealth.”
He argued for a separate Property Commission, independent of the Ministry of Agriculture or Environment.
“Because the regulator’s committee of agriculture will be seeing everything from the perspective of agriculture. That is not true.”
“When the law was made, agriculture was a predominant activity in the Nigerian economy. But we left that a long time ago,” he added.
Meanwhile, Kabir Ibrahim, National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), said the key concern should be whether any new agency created would be functional and well-funded.
“If it will make the cooperative societies more effective or more efficient, and will bring about food security, I do not mind it,” Ibrahim said.
“But how many agencies have we got that are really functional? So many agencies have been created, and they have no funding. They are not doing much.”
He warned against the creation of agencies for political showmanship.
“So, the clamour for new agencies or whatever will create jobs for some people who will run the agencies. But whether that will effectively make the cooperatives functional, that is what concerns us.”
“We must fund whatever we create towards the attainment of food security or food sufficiency in Nigeria,” he said.
As the government rolls out the RH-CRRP, industry voices are growing louder, not against reform, but for a model that reflects today’s cooperatives’ economic realities and sectoral diversity.
