Civil society organisations move to register cooperatives

Civil Society Organisations in the North West and South West have been urged to follow up the registration of cooperatives in accordance with the provisions of the new OHADA law on Cooperatives.

The call was made recently during the project launch Civil Society Organisations Action for Cooperative Governance and Service Quality in the South West and North West Regions.

With funding from European Union PASC programme, the implementing organisation, the Martin Luther King Memorial Foundation, brought together representatives of over 30 Civil Society Organisations for their empowerment.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of LUKMEF, Tanyi Christian, so far Cameroon has done a draft national law pending review and validation by the national assembly, developed some basic tools pending mass production and engaged in some training.

Nonetheless the Civil Society giant, said Many groups are wishing to register as cooperatives but are unable to do so, adding that some middlemen are collecting huge sums of money from groups who are trying to register.

This according to him will have devastating consequences on the economy as the sincerity in the concept of second generation agriculture becomes a doubt, the speed of the realisation of the growth and employment strategy paper is slowed and eventually vision 2035 becomes a mere dream.

It is against this backdrop that Tanyi Christian and his team brought together other Civil Society Organisation to empower them to follow up and make sure that cooperatives get registered accordingly.

During the course of the training, participants were drilled on an understanding of the OHADA Law on cooperatives, processes in compliance to the OHADA convention, analyzing the socio economic impact of the non compliance on rural and sub urban poor amongst others.

The second day of the training saw Civil Society Organisations learning how to strategise and lobby to influence and monitor cooperative registration process as well as the installation of support centres.

Speaking in his opening discourse, the First Assistant Senior Divisional Officer for Fako, Nafongo Vincent, personal representative of the Senior Divisional Officer, lauded the LUKMEF initiative saying that LUUKMEF has been seen as one of those rare Civil Society Organisations who are very present in the field following their course of work.

The administrator said his office is ready to collaborate with the network since the ultimate goal is to alleviate poverty, which is in line with the Cameroon Vision 2035.

Speakers during the training included Tanyi Christian the CEO of LUKMEF, Nji Polycarp a Consultant from Bamenda and Omam Esther the Director of Reach Out, Buea.

At the end of the two day training, participants who spoke to THE SUN, thanked LUKMEF for the initiative and promised to go back with zeal and enthusiasm to reverse the situation in their various localities.

On his part, Tanyi Christian appreciated the European Union support programme, PASC for thinking of the Cameroonian rural poor.

He called on Cameroonians to join efforts and make sure that the project runs to the end.