A rejuvenated Cooperative Act is in the offing. The revamped Act would see to the re-establishment of the cooperative bank in Sierra Leone. Industry sources told FS that the Act would be reviewed with support from the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The Director of Trade and Professional Head in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mr. Emmanuel Conjoh confirmed this in Freetown and disclosed that the Cooperative Act which he said would include new laws and regulations would be in place in the coming year. ” Cooperative Act would be reviewed with support from the International Labor Organization with new laws and regulations. It would be in place next year and the Cooperative Bank that would be reopened also in 2025.” Speaking on the theme ‘One World Through Cooperative Finance’ at the recently held International Credit Union Day celebration in Freetown, Mr. Conjoh gave insight into the Credit Union business in the economy.

The CU, according to him is a serious business that deserve recognition. According to him, CU’s total capital has increased from Le300 million at the beginning to Le20 billion presently and from the numbers of Credit Union I the economy increased from 6 to 26 presently. Mr. Conjoh noted that the country cannot develop if 90% of the businesses are in the informal sector. He disclosed that there are less than three million account holders presently out of a population of 8 million people in the country.

He charged the existing Credit Unions to promote and improve the livelihoods of their members, adding that CUs started in the country in the 1970s, ‘and they had a bank of their own but it later closed down’. Mr. Conjoh appealed to CUs to capture the 300,000 artisanal miners, commercial motorbike ‘okada’ riders, tricycle riders and artisanal fishermen. He also disclosed plans by the Ministry to formalize the informal sector, review the legal and regulatory space noting that CUs can do more and that they have no time to waste revealing that the Ministry would this year establish its own CU, that there are 18,000 civil servants in the country.

Earlier, the Chairman of the National Cooperative Credit Union Association (NaCCUA), Mr. Lamin Kamara revealed that CUs are an economic empowerment, that the day has been celebrated since 1948 to highlight the incredible work they are doing globally, recalled that the celebration this year stated with a three-days Credit Union Supervisory Workshop for CU stakeholders to educate them about the essence and role of the Supervisory Board followed by a symposium.

He also recalled the two Memorandums of Understanding signed between the Bank of Sierra Leone and the Department of Cooperatives on the one hand and the other between the Bank of Sierra Leone and NaCCUA in June this year that has bestowed a lot of confidence in CUs.