Cooperative Rating and Award Society of Nigeria (CRASON) has said that cooperative societies, in the last three years, have contributed over N1 trillion to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
President, CRASON, Victor Oyegoke, who stated this at the 2nd National Cooperative Awards and Symposium in Abuja, recently, noted that the country currently has over 300,000 cooperatives.
According to him, “within the last three years from our survey, we have been enable to discover that cooperative sector in Nigeria contributed over one N1 trillion to the Nigerian GDP.
“They have come of age and they are doing a lot to impact Nigeria’s GDP. So it is high time we began to showcase them because they are doing well on their contribution to Nigeria’s GDP.
“In addition, they have excess of N950 billion in their service and share capital, and they are doing over 900 billion granted loans to their members, creating more than 600,000 jobs, directly and indirectly to citizens of this nation,” he said.
Oyegoke added that government has not accorded the financial institutions the needed attention which is “why CRASON is saying no. There is need for us to begin to see how we can blow our trumpet by ourselves.”
According to him, no fewer than 40 cooperatives and individuals bagged the 2019 CRASON’s award for their outstanding contributions to national development.
He noted that the award was to appreciate their efforts in boosting the country’s economy and to showcase them to the world.