According to the International Cooperative Alliance, Cooperatives are people-centered enterprises owned, controlled and run by and for their members to realize their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations.
Cooperatives bring people together in a democratic and equal way. Whether the members are the customers, employees, users or residents, cooperatives are democratically managed by the ‘one member, one vote’ rule. Members share equal voting rights regardless of the amount of capital they put into the enterprise.
As businesses driven by values, not just profit, cooperatives share internationally agreed principles and act together to build a better world through cooperation. Putting fairness, equality and social justice at the heart of the enterprise, cooperatives around the world are allowing people to work together to create sustainable enterprises that generate long-term jobs and prosperity.
Cooperatives allow people to take control of their economic future and, because they are not owned by shareholders, the economic and social benefits of their activity stay in the communities where they are established. Profits generated are either reinvested in the enterprise or returned to the members.
The cooperative movement is far from being a marginal phenomenon, at least 12% of humanity is a cooperator of any of the 3 million cooperatives on earth.
So, by definition a cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise. The enterprise so form requires among other things regular financial participations by all members through monthly savings, share capital, loan patronage and other products as may be provided by the cooperative enterprise.
The requirements for becoming a member is as follows:
- Age: must be 18 years and above
- Nationality: Nigerian
- Character: of good character with soundness of mind and honest.
- Identity: valid means of identity and address verified by utility bill.
- Joining Fee:
- Registration/Initial Share Capital: N5,000 (one-off)
- Monthly Due: as per entrance class
- Monthly Savings: as per entrance class
- Commitment to attending meetings and participation in all cooperative’s programs
Cooperatives, like other businesses must provide high quality goods and supply excellent services for the promotion and enhancement of the Socio-economic welfare of the members; and if performance does not improve the Society will exhaust its financial resources and go bankrupt. However, for cooperative that perform very well, dividend and patronage returns are paid yearly to its members.