Stakeholders in the cooperative sector on Friday 22nd February 2021 ended a two-day validation workshop for the first policy on Cooperative Societies in Sierra Leone.
The workshop, which was held at the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s Conference Hall at Youyi Building in Freetown, was attended by members of the various cooperative societies across the country, among officials of the ministry and other development agencies with interest in the sector.
Officials say the policy is crucial in efforts to revive the sector which has been moribund for over a decade now, leading to the reduction in cooperative organisations and their activities in the country.
Cooperatives are voluntary organizations formed to represent the interest of their members who engage in the same trade or profession.
The organizational membership cuts across sectors including mining, housing, fishing, arts and crafts, and transportation.
In Sierra Leone, there are currently 582 cooperative organisations, as of August 2020, according to data from the Cooperative Department in the Ministry of Trade. That number, officials say, is a drastic reduction of what it used to be over a decade ago – over 2,000.
Newton Martin, Acting Registrar of the Department of Cooperatives said the sector lost its relevance over the years due to numerous factors, notably lack of purpose within the organizations, lack of finance, lack of capacity, as well as the effect of the (1991-2002) civil war, the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic, climate factors and now Covid-19.
Mr Martin said that despite its woes, the sector makes a substantial contribution to the economy of the country, noting that the assets and contributions of the individual society’s runs in billions of Leones.
"If properly managed, cooperatives can play a great role in solving the socioeconomic problems facing the country," he stated.
The new policy will pave the way for the review of the 1977 Cooperative Act, the first and only existing law governing the sector.
Officials and members of the cooperative sector say the outdated nature of the law is a major part of the reasons for the downward spiral of the sector.
Esther Johnson, a representative of the Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL) at the workshop, said the financial regulator was concerned about the many unregistered cooperatives and called for the harmonisation of legislation relating to the sector.
Savings and Credit Unions are also part of the larger cooperative sector, and they fall under the supervision of the central bank. This is the first time savings and credit unions will be captured in an official document as part of the cooperative sector in Sierra Leone.
Khadijatu Barrie, the National Coordinator of the International Trade Center (ITC), a UN agency dedicated to promoting the internationalisation of Small and Medium-Sized businesses in the developing world, which has been collaborating on the policy review process, called for gender inclusivity. She said the protection of the rights of women and youth in the policy was important because the two categories of people were key drivers in the development of the sector. Women in particular, she stressed, were very active in cooperative societies yet they tended to have little voice in decision making.
Barrie also said that massive sensitisation of the policy as part of efforts to popularize it in the public was needed.
The policy, according to officials, has been in the making since 2013.
Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Edward Hinga Sandy told the audience in his keynote address at the opening ceremony on Thursday that the introduction of a policy for the cooperative sector was timely, coming as the government was implementing its Medium Term National Development Plan. He revealed that the role of Cooperatives was well captured in the national development blueprint, as was articulated at its launch by President Julius Maada Bio.
The minister said the policy was important in that it promoted entrepreneurship, “which is a sure way to guarantying the livelihoods of the people”.
He also said that the policy was important in that it would encourage more local production, thereby cutting down on dependence on imported consumables.
“We consume too much that is produced from outside,” the minister lamented, noting that a policy and eventually a legislation would be crucial to put in check exploitative investors who have contributed to the suffering of local farmers.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Augustine Sheku said the move to formulate a policy for the cooperative sector was a demonstration of the government's commitment to improve on the livelihoods of its people.
"Cooperative societies have been moribund, but they are very key in development of the sector," he said.
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