LASCOCO SET TO STRENGTHEN COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES CAPACITY

… Organises Training Programme for Stakeholders

In furtherance of its mandate to build capacities of Cooperative Societies in the country, widen and improve their business knowledge and skills that would position them in a competitive advantage in the ever-evolving dynamic business environment, the Lagos State Cooperative College (LASCOCO) has organised a four-day training programme, themed; “Cooperative Business Strategy” for members.

The Provost of the College, Mr. Akorede Ojomu, in his address at the commencement of the training held at Agege, said the programme was designed and packaged to impart to participants the needed skills required for growth, development and formulation of activities to sustain structured Cooperative Societies. 

He added that the institution had been positioned to promote the growth and development of Cooperative Societies through the provision of bespoke human capacity training programmes such as the training programme. 

In his words, “The College, as a specialised tertiary educational institution approved by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), provides year-round qualitative training in different streams and categories on cooperatives and related subjects for cooperators and interested members of the public. This is all in the bid to guarantee an adequate supply of highly skilled manpower for job creation and self-employment”. 

“Over the years, the College has reinvented itself to better serve the needs of the cooperative movement through the provision of customised long and short-term training for enhanced service delivery. This development was driven by our resolve to benchmark cooperative business activities within our local environment with global standards through capacity building initiatives such as this which ultimately help to upscale the managerial competencies of cooperators”. 

Ojomu explained that the four-day training programme has been conceived and packaged with the intent of acquainting participants with the skills set required for the development and formulation of specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound strategies for the sustenance and growth of cooperative businesses as managers and members of structured cooperative societies.  

He said, “In our position as managers of resources, our consciousness of the dynamism of the environment of our business operations is not in doubt; a development which entrusts on us the responsibility to be proactive in the formulation of strategies that will not only ensure the survival, but more importantly, the growth of the businesses we manage on behalf of our members”.

“We all know that by nature, cooperative organisations are unique business entities in terms of their characterization, most especially as they are created primarily to promote the economic welfare of members and not essentially to maximise profit. Their business operations are impacted by macroeconomic policies and factors like other profit-oriented organisations thereby necessitating the need to deploy action plans that would ensure their sustenance and growth”, he enthused. 

The Provost, therefore, advised the participants to maximise the opportunity provided by the programme to acquire the necessary knowledge that would manifest in improved quality service delivery for the betterment of their societies. 

Some of the topics covered at the capacity building programme include Business information and Data Monetization, Business Strategy for Cooperative Survival, Bankable Feasibility Studies in Cooperative Environment, Agribusiness Value Chain and Business Re-engineering amongst others.