The Federal Government has commenced a six-month revalidation and re-certification exercise for all existing cooperative societies as part of plans to establish a national digital identity system for the sector.
The exercise follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Cooperative Federation of Nigeria and Seamfix Limited for the deployment of the National Cooperative Identity, Trust and Digital Governance Infrastructure.
The statement was signed recently by Ezeaja Ikemefuna, Head, Department of Information, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security and Supervising Minister of Cooperative Affairs, Sen. Dr. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said the agreement marked “the beginning of a new era of visibility, trust, accountability and digital governance” for Nigeria’s cooperative ecosystem.
He said the reform represented a shift “from demonstration to implementation” under the Renewed Hope Cooperative Reform & Revamp Programme, RH-CRRP 2030.
Under the exercise, existing cooperatives are required to approach their respective State Departments of Cooperatives for verification and authentication of their registration records.
Successful cooperatives will be onboarded onto the National Cooperative Smart Registry, NCSR, and issued a Cooperative Verification Number, CVN, while members will progressively receive the Cooperative Member Identification Number, CoopID.
Abdullahi said the NCSR, CVN and CoopID would form the foundation of the National Cooperative Digital Architecture Platform.
“The objective is “One genuine cooperative. One verifiable CVN. One cooperative member. One verifiable CoopID.””
He said the system would enable government to identify genuine cooperatives, track interventions and measure their impact.
“We should be able to know who receives government support, where they are located and what impact that support is making,” he said.
The minister added that verified cooperative identities would support access to government interventions, bank loans, contracts and partnerships.
He said the platform would also integrate with CoopCHECK, a cooperative credit bureau, to improve credit profiling and lending.
Abdullahi said the system would be accessible through USSD and feature phones to accommodate cooperators in rural communities without smartphones.
He added that digital verification would strengthen enforcement of Section 54 of the Cooperative Societies Act against the illegal use of the “Co-operative” name.
“Genuine cooperatives have nothing to fear from visibility and verification,” he stated.
The minister also directed the harmonisation of ongoing reviews of the Nigerian Cooperative Societies Act towards producing a new Cooperative Societies Bill.
He said the proposed legislation would recognise digital registration, electronic records, identity, data governance and financial technology.
The Permanent Secretary, Dr. Marcus Ogunbiyi, said the MoU would provide the technical backbone for the National Cooperative Smart Registry and the CVN and CoopID systems.
He said, ‘’ Through this MoU we are building the technical backbone for two critical systems, as mentioned yesterday, which are: (i) The National Cooperative Smart Registry (NCSR) to streamline platform to handle registration, searches, and administrative workflows across federal and state levels as well as; (ii)The Cooperative Verification Number (CVN) & CoopID which offer secure identity system and a unique digital footprint for cooperative societies and their members’’.
The Executive Director and Group COO of Seamfix Limited, Frank Atube, said the CVN would give every registered cooperative a verifiable national identity, while the CoopID would provide members with individual digital identities.
The MoU was executed under the Public-Private-People Partnership, 4Ps, model of the RH-CRRP 2030.
