BY HIZKEL HAILU
Traditional cooperatives associations existed in Ethiopian society centuries ago in the form of iqub and idir. Iqub is an association of people having common objectives of mobilizing resources, especially finance, and distributing it to members on a rotating basis.
Idir is an association of people that have the objective of providing social and economic insurance for the members in the events of death, accident, damages to property and emergency cases among others. Of course, there were also initiatives for labor resource mobilization that were to overcome seasonal labor peaks, known as “Jigie”, “Wonfel”, among others.
However, the history of formal cooperatives in Ethiopia dates back to 1960 when the first directive of cooperatives was enacted. Cooperatives in Ethiopia are playing an active role in the fields of banking, input and output marketing, agro-processing, storage, dairy, and many other social and economic activities.
The new cooperative movement in Ethiopia was triggered by reforms made to the socio political system. Currently, cooperatives are recognized as an important instrument for socio-economic improvement of the community coupled with sustaining peace and stability across a given nation.
Cooperatives have inherent advantages in tackling the problems of poverty alleviation, food security and job creation. They are also considered to have immense potential to deliver goods and services in areas where both the state and the private sector have failed. Serious efforts are being made to strengthen the capital of cooperatives based through increasing members’ subscription, mobilization of savings and value addition.
Understanding the matchless role of cooperatives for developing the nation’s economy, social bond and peace as well, the government of Ethiopia is working exhaustively in supporting cooperatives across the nation through adopting different policies, proclamations and guidelines.
As a result, the federal and regional governments of Ethiopia in general and the federal and regional cooperative agencies in particular have been putting tremendous efforts towards alleviating the level of poverty and later on achieving the goals of poverty reduction by creating and facilitating the cooperatives in the country.
Among the supportive activities the federal cooperative agency was preparing for the annual Exhibition, Bazar and symposium for the past seven years. The Agency has also started preparing the 8th National Cooperatives Exhibition, Bazaar and Symposium this week.
As a result the agency has organized a symposium here in Addis Ababa this Thursday. During the symposium, the agency has disclosed that it has been endeavoring to create strong cooperation agencies amidst COVID-19 pandemic fights.
Kicking-off a five day cooperation bazar and symposium under the theme, “Cooperative Marketing for Sustainable Peace’’ yesterday, Cooperation General Director Osman Sirur, said that the main purpose of the cooperation is to create effective market linkage between product suppliers and consumers.
In this regard, product quality and traceability is not compromised. Over 65 local companies are actively involved, while no foreign companies have participated due to Coronavirus protocol.
The General Director further said that cooperatives are serving as a key tool for national development and community building in the government’s efforts to make a prosperous and peaceful Ethiopia.
As to him, the number of cooperatives has increased from 40,000 to 94,000 and that of members swells from 6.7 million to 23 million over the past eight years. Similarly, the initial capital of the cooperation has increased from 3.7 to 30 billion Birr in the same period.
Cooperatives are contributing their share to increase production and productivity coupled with improving the living standards of farmers by providing various inputs to the producer and developing a culture of using agricultural mechanization technologies.
The associations are not only able to increase the income of their members by contributing their products to the domestic and foreign markets, but they are also contributing to the stabilization of agricultural products and commodities in urban areas, said Osman.
According to him, the agency is also working to realize the vision of creating cooperatives that will ensure the sustainable improvement of the lives of the members and play a significant role in the country’s economic development as well. Thus, a 10-year master plan has been formulated and work is underway to create modern cooperatives in terms of operation, manpower and organization.
Therefore, supporting the activities of cooperatives is the same as helping the process of sustainable peace and development to be more successful, he noted.
According to the General Director, such an important event would play an indispensable role in transforming technology, distributing resources fairly, fostering job creation and coming up with a stable market.
It has also increased the level of export items from two to 12 and the involvement of women from 17 to 30 percent. Likewise, the level of saving in the Cooperation increases from below one billion to 21 billion Birr. In this regard, the saving level of children increases from 90 to 7 million.
However, the nation is seriously facing lack of skilled human power, adequate finance, and infrastructure, which hinders the success. Therefore, helping cooperation has played a significant role in ensuring holistic advantages.
State Minister at the Ministry of Agriculture Sani Redi on his part said, “We need to encourage cooperation so as to ensure Ethiopian prosperity. It is an essential aspect for fair distribution of resources and fortifying social linkage. Therefore, it has to receive due attention regarding policy making and strategy to curb maladministration.’’
According to Sani, cooperatives are being used as a key tool for national development and community building in the government’s efforts to realize a prosperous and peaceful Ethiopia. He also said that the associations are playing their part in achieving sustainable development goals by participating in various social, environmental and economic sectors.
At the symposium some cooperative unions have shared their experience for more than 250 participants from different federal and regional offices including members of parliament. On top of that, Admas’s Hulegeb Farmers Cooperation General Manager Meseret Workie stated that the Cooperation has been ensuring fair utilization of resources and providing new products into the market towards quenching consumers’ thirst.
Mentioning that the union’s initial capital was ETB 855,852, he said that their current capita has increased to ETB 128 million and created more than 250 jobs.
As learnt from the General Manager, the cooperation would collect over 139,000 Quintal of fertilizer a year, and some 65 percent has been allocated to rein inflation. That is why the cooperation has manifold significance and has become a range of lucrative aspects, he added.
The union has sold more than ETB 2.5 million worth of products to the local market. As the products are competitive in the market, they have been able to make a profit of ETB 1.5 million for each of the unions.
In cognizance of the importance of cooperatives for economic development in Ethiopia, the Government of Ethiopia the Federal Cooperative Agency, Cooperative Unions with their members, the Ministry of Agriculture and all stakeholders should work in hand and glove in the sector. As a result, the desired economic growth along with sustainable peace across the nation will be achieved.
The Ethiopian Herald 21 March 2021
