South Sudan unveils e-registry to fast-track cooperatives registration

Juba, April 10, 2025 – The Government of South Sudan has launched the cooperative e-registry, a digital platform aimed at simplifying, accelerating, and ensuring transparency in the registration and management of cooperatives across the country.

Speaking at the launch of the e-registry in Juba on Tuesday, Hussein Abdelbagi Akol, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, described the initiative as a significant move away from manual registration to electronic systems.

“Today, we are fulfilling our role in developing and supporting cooperatives. The electronic registration is an innovation in cooperative management, designed to preserve information, track the status of cooperatives at a glance, and improve communication between states and the three administrative areas,” he said. “From today, I am announcing that if you do not organise yourselves as a group, we will have no time to support you. This will be our directive for the country, and we must encourage and support cooperatives.”

Speaking t the launch of the digital tool, Meshak Malo, the Food and Agriculture Organisation [FAO] Country Representative in South Sudan, emphasised the importance of encouraging the younger generation to consider farming as a viable business opportunity.

“When I was at university, I was told that agriculture isn’t attractive, and many didn’t want to join the sector. Now that we are going digital, we urge the youth to join us. Come and assist in exploring how this e-registry works and the capacity it offers,” he said. “We look forward to this initiative. It’s going to be a journey. There is much to be done, and we must populate the e-registry. We need to visit the states to ensure its success, and later on, we will address areas where we haven’t yet perfected the system.”

Meanwhile, Stephen Almadi, head of the Cooperative Department at the Co-operative Bank of South Sudan, remarked that the central registry would make it easier for the bank to verify cooperatives and partner with them, thereby avoiding potential irregularities.

“As a Cooperative Bank, cooperatives are in our DNA, so we have a strong interest in knowing who they are, where they are, and working with them. We have faced many challenges due to the absence of a central registry, as each partner who wishes to engage with cooperatives has conducted their own data collection,” Almadi explained.

He added, “Each partner brings their own data, which leads to a lack of coordination. Without centralised data, what we have are fragmented pieces of information, which are not comprehensive. This makes it impossible to move forward together in the development of our cooperatives.”

https://thecooperator.news/south-sudanese-fish-sacco-decries-exorbitant-ura-taxes/

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