With a history dating far back as we can remember, a lot of people have been involved in a cooperative directly or indirectly but what really is a cooperative?
According to fit small business cooperative is an organization owned and controlled by the people who use the products or services the business produces and it is democratically controlled.
Cooperative society was also found in the bible during the days of Pharaoh, Joseph set up a farmer cooperative to help the country Egypt through the days of farming


The dictionary meaning of cooperation is “to work together”. How­ever, the meaning of cooperative societies is quite technical and has the context of village cooperatives in India. In one form or the other, some kind of cooperative societies are found all over the world,
International Cooperative Alliance defines cooperatives as people-centered enterprises owned, controlled and run by and for their members to realize their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations.


As some might think cooperative society is not only for the poor or farmers alone everybody can actually benefit from a cooperative
The functions of the cooperative society cannot be fulfilled by individuals. The idea is that what individual cannot do because, of his limitations can be done by economic enterprise

Cooperative society plays a crucial role in promoting the process of development and togetherness and most especially in eradicating poverty. It also leads to an important direction of industrialization of the economy which aids developing countries.
Cooperative are setup to remedy certain issues in a specific market or market place, the purpose of a cooperative is always set out before its creation even specific goals that the members intend to achieve by joining the cooperative

One of the major purposes of a cooperative is to encourage its members to save money and enables them to access the finance they require for various purposes from their accumulated savings. This purpose provides an indication of what a cooperative is really created for which is to help the members to achieve certain goals, the 2 major tasks they performed by a cooperative are:

To enable members to save their money on a regular basis, or according to their needs. The member saves his/her money within the framework of the cooperative. Knowing that he/she will receive a suitable return for his effort, in the form of interest on his savings.
The second fundamental task of the cooperative is to grant loans to its members. Loans are granted from the members’ accumulated savings. Obviously, not all the members can take out loans, or obtain them immediately or simultaneously. Members are granted loans in accordance with their seniority within the cooperative and the amount of their savings. Generally speaking, the size of loans granted from the cooperative’s fund is governed by the liquidity regulations of the country in which it is located.

Through the cooperative, a lot of people who have not been able to access loans from the banks have been able to access loans from a cooperative society.

Cooperative societies have been granting peasant farmers and the financially excluded access to finance which has gone a long way in reducing poverty in several countries of the world
It is said that at least 12% of humanity is a cooperator of any of the 3 million cooperatives on earth. That is 12 percent getting access to finance and been taken out of poverty.

Cooperative societies have since evolved over the years to provide various services to its members. Even leveraging on technology like we are providing to ensure management and monitoring is very easy you read more about is at https://www.asusu.ng/