The federal government has announced plans to digitally register and capture about 30,000 farmers’ cooperative societies nationwide as part of a broad reform aimed at cleaning up Nigeria’s agricultural ecosystem.
The initiative is designed to block impostors, strengthen the credibility of farmers’ groups, and ensure that government incentives, funding, and support schemes are channelled strictly to legitimate cooperatives actively driving food production across the country.
According to the government, the decision followed observations of countless impostor organisations masquerading as representatives of farmers, agro processors, and dealers, a situation that has weakened trust and distorted access to support within the sector.
The digital registration initiative is also expected to modernise cooperative operations, promote transparent financial reporting, maintain accurate records of members and assets, and improve governance standards across cooperative societies.
Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, announced the move during a meeting on the Review of the Nigerian Cooperative Societies Act, Cap N98 LFN 2004. He said the digitalisation process would bring efficiency, integrity, inclusion, and sustainable growth to the cooperative sector.
According to him, “Digitalisation will strengthen cooperative institutions, increase trust, improve service delivery, reduce fraud, and unlock new opportunities across the cooperative economy.”
Abdullahi revealed that when properly structured and supported, cooperatives would become a vital instrument for Nigeria to achieve capital mobilisation, inclusive growth, and shared wealth creation.
As the driver of the Renewed Hope Cooperative Reform and Revamp Programme (RH-CRRP), the minister explained that the programme aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s vision to mobilise all sectors of the economy towards building a One Trillion Dollar Economy by 2030.
He described the RH-CRRP as a bold and transformational national framework designed to position cooperatives as a powerful tool for community wealth creation, poverty eradication, and inclusive growth across Nigeria.
The minister noted that key areas of focus under the programme include digital registration, the creation of a national cooperative database, a digital membership identification system, electronic documentation, administration of cooperative societies, as well as filings and reporting.
He maintained that cooperatives must no longer be treated as a side activity, stressing that they should be seen as strategic institutions capable of mobilising capital, empowering citizens, creating jobs, driving agricultural productivity, and strengthening the national economy.
Abdullahi acknowledged the contributions of CFN and International IDEA to cooperative development efforts, but emphasised that by mandate and structure, the current initiative should be led by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security as the supervising ministry responsible for cooperative development in Nigeria.
He also revealed that the ministry had fixed a date for a broader harmonisation process that would consolidate the reviewed output from the stakeholders’ meeting and the ministry’s parallel work into a final national document.
According to him, “This document will align with the International Cooperative Alliance – Africa Model Cooperative Law and the Africa Ministerial Declaration and Action Plan, which Nigeria co-signed with other African Ministers in Kenya during the 14th Africa Ministerial Cooperative Conference (AMCCO) in October 2025.”
The minister further disclosed that International IDEA would join the Coalition of the Willing (CoW), a group of credible partners supporting the Renewed Hope Cooperative Reform and Revamp Programme (RH-CRRP).
He lauded the efforts of critical stakeholders and the Federal Department of Cooperatives, highlighting the global relevance of cooperative societies.
“Cooperatives today represent over 1 billion members worldwide, operating in over 100 countries, and providing over 280 million jobs — that’s almost 10% of the world’s employed population,” he said.
“In Nigeria, cooperatives are actively transforming lives across the agriculture, housing, credit, transportation, and trade sectors,” Abdullahi added.
He disclosed that Nigeria currently has 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.
In her remarks, President of the Cooperative Federation of Nigeria (CFN), Hannatu Mershak, said the digitisation initiative was not about innovation for its own sake, but about improving efficiency, integrity, inclusion, and sustainable growth.
She stated that the initiative would strengthen cooperative institutions, increase trust, improve service delivery, reduce fraud, and unlock new opportunities across the cooperative ecosystem.
However, some farmers have expressed doubts about the commencement of the initiative, recalling similar promises made by the government in the past.
In 2025, during the commemoration of the second United Nations International Year of Cooperatives (IYC), the government announced similar plans, but farmers say no concrete action followed.
“These initiatives are good. But to what end? As a farmer, my concern is how to get inputs to grow my crops and not the reforms the government is talking about that will be actualised,” Abdul Aziz, a farmer in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, said.
