Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Delta State government said it has commenced the process of re-certification of all cooperative societies to enable it have a database which will ease policy formulation.
Commissioner for Trade and Investment in the state, Chika Ossai, made this known on Sunday at Iselegu, Ndokwa East Local Government Area of the state.
He said the state governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, is very interested in the welfare of his people, noting that cooperative societies are very important in the life of the people.
“At present, we have more than 40,000 cooperative societies but, the re-certification will help us know the healthy ones, assist us in knowing the ones that are truly functional for us to have a database which, at a glance, will tell us the state of the cooperative societies.
“Cooperative societies are very important to the socio-economic life of our people and they have to be strengthened because Governor Okowa is interested in building strong institutions and you are aware that most micro-credit programmes can only be accessed through cooperative societies,” Ossai said.
He said cooperative societies in the state have already welcomed the re-certification programme.