Addis Abeba City Administration has established a new Cooperative Unions Agency, boosting the status of a similar institution which was previously just an office. It will have a mandate of dealing with saving and credit, consumer relations, and facilitating jobs in its engagement with cooperatives unions.
“The office was scaled up to an agency because of the rise in the number of cooperative unions in the city,” said Mulushewa Bekele, Addis Abeba city cooperative union organizing and development team leader.
There are over 11, 000 cooperative unions with 1.2 million members in Addis Abeba. These cooperative unions are involved in areas of business including finance and saving, residential housing, hotel and recreation center, and road constructing. The unions also have their own mill to supply, process, and sell flour at fair prices.
The government is providing a work place for cooperative unions to sell their goods and services as well as warehouses to store their products, according to the Mulushewa. The total capital and saving by cooperative unions has reached almost 4.5 billion Br.
The new Agency will have one director, three deputy directors and six directorates in charge of saving and credit issues, market stabilising and consumer relations, facilitating jobs and other important duties in benefiting cooperatives.
Leave a Reply