ABUJA, September 6, 2026 — The Federal Government of Nigeria has stepped up efforts to transform the country’s cooperative sector through digitalisation, charging cooperative authorities in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory [FCT] to become “frontline implementers” of the reform rather than spectators.
The government says the digital transformation, anchored on the National Cooperative Smart Registry [NCSR], will address longstanding gaps in cooperative identification, registration, data management and regulation, while improving access to finance and government interventions.
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security and Supervising Minister of Cooperative Affairs, Sen. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, made the call during the National Technical Workshop on Cooperative Sector Digitalisation held in Abuja in August. The workshop was organised by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in collaboration with its technical partner, Seamfix Limited.
Abdullahi said the workshop was intended to move the cooperative reform agenda from “reform conversations to reform implementation” under the Renewed Hope Cooperative Reform & Revamp Programme [RH-CRRP 2030].
“Distinguished Directors of Cooperatives, this is particularly why you are here. The Federal Government cannot successfully digitalize Nigeria’s cooperative sector from Abuja alone,” Abdullahi told the state directors.
“Cooperative regulation and administration take place across our states and communities. You are therefore not spectators in this transformation; you are frontline implementers.”
He urged the directors to familiarise themselves with the registration, search and verification processes under the NCSR, as well as the procedures for issuing the Cooperative Verification Number [CVN] to cooperative organisations and the Cooperative Member Identification Number [CoopID] to individual members.
The minister also called on the state officials to identify peculiarities within their jurisdictions and ensure that the national system works effectively for cooperatives at the grassroots.
He said digitalisation was intended to address decades of identity and data challenges that had made it difficult for government and financial institutions to identify genuine cooperatives, plan interventions and track their impact.
“For too long we could not plan for cooperatives because we could not see them. We cannot effectively finance what we cannot identify. We cannot properly regulate what we cannot see,” he said.
“With NCSR, CVN and Coop ID, government, banks and development partners can now identify, verify, finance and regulate cooperatives with confidence.”
Six-month revalidation exercise
As part of the reforms, the Federal Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Cooperative Federation of Nigeria [CFN] and Seamfix for the deployment of Nigeria’s National Cooperative Identity and supporting digital infrastructure.
The agreement was signed on August 12 by Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Marcus Olaniyi Ogunbiyi, on behalf of the ministry.
The government will undertake a six-month national revalidation and re-certification exercise covering existing cooperatives across the country.
Under the exercise, existing cooperatives will report to their respective state cooperative departments to have their registration records verified and authenticated. Cooperatives that successfully complete the process will be onboarded onto the NCSR and issued a CVN, while their members will progressively receive CoopIDs.
The NCSR, CVN and CoopID will form the foundation of the National Cooperative Digital Architecture Platform [NCDAP].
According to Abdullahi, the system will give government a clearer picture of the cooperative sector and help ensure that public support reaches legitimate beneficiaries.
“We should be able to know who receives government support, where they are located and what impact that support is making,” he said.
He added that a verified CVN would serve as a trusted credential for cooperatives seeking government interventions, bank financing, contracts and partnerships.
The digital system is also expected to integrate with CoopCheck, a cooperative credit bureau, to strengthen credit profiling and lending to cooperatives.
Digitalisation linked to cooperative bank
The minister said the digital infrastructure would also support the proposed Cooperative Bank of Nigeria, providing verified data needed for share subscription, credit profiling, risk management and sustainable operations.
He described the proposed bank as “government-enabled, cooperatively-owned, cooperatively-controlled and professionally managed”, with share subscription targeted to commence by the end of October 2026, following resolutions of the 8th National Council on Cooperative Affairs.
Abdullahi said the government’s Ministerial Advocacy Tour for the cooperative bank had already covered the South-West, North-West and South-South zones, with visits to the North-Central, South-East and North-East zones expected to follow before the bank’s launch.
New cooperative law planned
Alongside the digitalisation programme, the Federal Government is harmonising ongoing reviews of the Nigerian Cooperative Societies Act, with the aim of developing legislation capable of supporting a modern digital cooperative economy.
The proposed legislation is expected to recognise digital registration, electronic records, cooperative identity, data governance and financial technology.
The minister said the review would involve the Cooperative Federation of Nigeria, National Assembly, State Houses of Assembly, Nigerian Law Reform Commission, Federal Ministry of Justice, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and other relevant stakeholders.
The new law is expected to provide greater clarity on cooperative registration, governance, reporting, supervision, auditing and sanctions, while aligning the cooperative sector with national identity and financial systems.
It will also facilitate interoperability with credit bureaus and fintech platforms while safeguarding members’ data and rights.
Abdullahi said digital verification would further strengthen enforcement of Section 54 of the Cooperative Societies Act, particularly against the illegal use of the word “co-operative”.
“Genuine co-operatives have nothing to fear from visibility and verification,” he said.
Digital system to support government interventions
Permanent Secretary Ogunbiyi said the digital infrastructure being developed, beginning with the CVN and Smart Registry, would become a key mechanism for transparently delivering input subsidies, credit interventions and technical assistance to verified cooperators under the AGROW initiative.
He said the RH-CRRP 2030 was designed to modernise the cooperative sector, expand financial inclusion, eliminate fraudulent actors and unlock capital for smallholder producers and cooperatives across Nigeria.
Ogunbiyi urged participants at the technical workshop to ensure that discussions and demonstrations translated into concrete action at state and grassroots levels.
The workshop brought together Directors of Cooperatives from the 36 states and FCT, members of the RH-CRRP 2030 National Steering Committee, leaders of CFN and the Institute of Cooperative Professionals of Nigeria [ICOPRON], representatives of government agencies, development partners and technology experts.
A major highlight of the workshop was a live demonstration of the digital platform by Seamfix.
Abdullahi said the reforms were not simply an information and communications technology project but an economic and institutional transformation intended to improve transparency, accountability, planning and service delivery within the cooperative movement.
Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, he said, the government was determined to establish a cooperative ecosystem that is modern, inclusive, transparent and accountable, and capable of contributing to food security, financial inclusion, job creation and shared prosperity.
“A New Era for Nigeria’s Cooperatives is here,” the minister declared.
https://thecooperator.news/nigeria-to-digitalise-cooperative-sector-in-major-reform-drive/
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