ABEOKUTA– The Ogun State Cooperative Federation Limited (OGSCOFED) on Wednesday hosted an inter-religious prayer session to herald the year 2022 business activities of the association.
The prayer session held in Abeokuta the Ogun state capital had members of the association from the various branches across the state in attendance.
Speaking with newsmen, the President of the Cooperative, Alhaji Wasiu Olaleye stated that the cooperative society was established in 1976 to foster the interest and harness the resources of members and to take the necessary steps to prevent any threats to their economic independence.
Olaleye maintained that cooperative societies is the economic engine of any country as it provides financial assistance to more than one quarter of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES) in the states.
“Cooperative society is the economic buffer to any country. It can be categorized as the financial, because we finance more than a quarter of major small and medium businesses in the state,
“And these data are not just from my hand but from survey conducted by GIZ, a German agency for international corporation working with the state.
“GIZ made a research conducted 2 years ago and it was specifically stated that about 26% of the business in the state are getting their finance from corporative society. This percentage of the people operating small business in the state, so it cannot be neglected”, he posited
The Secretary of the society, Mr David Ayelabola further reteraites that the prayer session is in its 5th year running, adding that the practice is to commit the society and it’s members to God for a successful business year.
Ayelabola maintained that though 2021 was though, owing to the covid-19 pandemic ravaging the world, the society still managed to declare surpluses to members at the last Annual General Meeting in December, 2021.
“We have being doing but this one come out to be the best edition, it the first we are having in the in state. Every January is our annual prayer meeting, we are to come together and pray for all the cooperation, as it for us in the prayer to have financial surplus and the members to have benefits so far in the cooperative.
“Year 2021 was though, it affected so many of our society in areas of declaring of surplus but not like the other years like 2019”.
In her seperate remarks, Mrs Ajayi Adeleke from Remo branch 1 and the Vice President of the society appreciated the members for giving her the opportunity to serve as the first woman on the board, saying that more women should be given same opportunities.
She added that the new executives depends on God to deliver on it’s promises to members, while calling on other members to give necessary support to the new exco.
“Thank God for his mercy, thank God for the opportunity given to us, I think there’s nothing we can do in life without prayer in life. God first, God says do mine first and other things shall be added onto you.
“I think the opportunity given to me being the first woman to be in the Ogun state Cooperative Federation Is a great height for all women. It shows that no matter any level you can attain it as a woman. We are more predent than the men in terms of spending so more women should be given same opportunities as mine in the future”, she stressed
Meanwhile, the christian prayer session was offered by Rev. Gbenga Oluwasanya, and the Muslim session was delivered by Sheik Alao Adenekan.
