South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), on Tuesday launched electronic registration system to ensure proper management of cooperatives.
This digital platform will enhance transparency, efficiency, and sustainability that will lead to economic transformation.
Hussein Abdelbagi Akol, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, said the electronic registration is an innovative development that will foster and preserve and prescribe information on cooperatives across the country.
He noted that cooperatives have the potential to transform the social economic status of vulnerable groups.
“Cooperatives offer decent job opportunities to everybody. Women, youth, and vulnerable groups who have cooperatives also will come up together and they will have decent jobs,” said Abdelbagi during the launching ceremony in Juba.
“Cooperatives fight poverty, and this is one of the most vital problems we are facing in our country. To overcome, we have to come together as a group to make sure that everybody has something to do for himself in the group and outside the group,” he added.
Meshack Malo, FAO country representative in South Sudan, said the launch of the electronic registration is critical to transition from analog to digital, describing it as an important element.
He stressed the need for the ministry of agriculture and food security to protect members of cooperatives against rogue officials.
“Because of several cooperatives we have seen, the officials can also take advantage of the members who are working very hard. So we really want to commit as FAO to working with the ministry and working with the department to make sure that this doesn’t continue,” said Malo.
Stephen Almadi, head of the Cooperative Department at the Cooperative Bank of South Sudan, said that the system will enable the centralized registration for all cooperative movements in the country.
He reiterated the bank’s commitment to work with the ministry to support and ensure the success of the project.
“As Cooperative Bank, cooperatives are our DNA, and so we have a very, very keen interest in getting to know where they are, getting to know who they are, and getting to work with them,” said Almadi.
