By Kingsley Benson
The federal government is moving to digitise Nigeria’s cooperative sector through a national identity and data system designed to improve transparency, strengthen governance and expand access to finance, as it targets increasing cooperative assets to N5 trillion within five years.
The initiative, introduced under the National Cooperative Identity Reform of the Renewed Hope Cooperative Reform and Revamp Programme (RH-CRRP 2030), seeks to address fragmented administration and weak data systems that have limited the sector’s economic potential.
Speaking at the 10th National Cooperative Summit, Exhibition and Awards in Abuja, organised by the Cooperative Federation of Nigeria, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security and Supervising Minister of Cooperative Affairs, Senator Aliyu Abdullahi, said the government was committed to making cooperatives “a credible, transparent and bankable economic bloc.”
According to Abdullahi, Nigeria has more than 370,000 registered cooperative societies, with over 30 million members and estimated annual turnover exceeding N1.7 trillion. Despite this scale, he said, the sector had yet to translate its extensive membership and financial activity into greater economic strength.
At the centre of the reform is the proposed National Cooperative Digital Architecture Platform, comprising a National Cooperative Societies Register, a Cooperative Verifiable Number and CoopID. The system is expected to establish a more structured means of identifying cooperative societies and their members while improving the availability and reliability of sector data.
Reliable records could help financial institutions assess cooperative borrowers more effectively and enable the government to identify beneficiaries and monitor programme outcomes. For a sector seeking greater access to formal finance, improved data management could provide an important foundation for stronger financial relationships.
The government is also pursuing the establishment of the Cooperative Bank of Nigeria and developing a Savings and Credit Cooperatives model to improve members’ access to savings and credit facilities.
These measures form part of a broader ambition to increase cooperative assets from the current N1.7 trillion to N5 trillion within five years. Achieving that goal, however, will require more than digital registration. It will depend on productive investment, effective governance and financing arrangements that support sustainable economic activity.
The scale of the sector also presents institutional challenges. With cooperative societies operating across different communities and economic activities, establishing consistent standards for reporting, financial management and accountability will be essential to the success of the reform.
Earlier at the summit, the President of the Cooperative Federation of Nigeria, Mrs Hannatu Mershak, called for greater unity, transparency, accountability and technological innovation within the movement. She also emphasised the need to improve access to finance and urged stakeholders to translate summit discussions into practical partnerships and concrete actions.
Her appeal highlights a central issue for RH-CRRP 2030: digital platforms can improve records and visibility, but they cannot independently resolve governance weaknesses. The effectiveness of the proposed architecture will depend on adoption, data quality, institutional capacity and compliance with transparent operating standards.
For Nigeria’s more than 30 million cooperative members, the potential benefits extend to farmers, traders, household businesses and small enterprises that rely on cooperative structures to organise economic activity and access financial services.
The reform therefore represents an effort to make the sector more visible, accountable and financially integrated. Its success will ultimately depend on whether the new systems translate into easier access to capital, stronger institutions and measurable growth in cooperative productivity and assets.
