Federal Govt Unveils Proposed Bank Ownership, Cooperatives Hold 65% Equity

The federal government has unveiled an ownership structure for the proposed Cooperative Bank of Nigeria that reserves the majority equity for cooperative societies and individual cooperators.

Minister of state for agriculture and food security, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said the development was a deliberate move to prevent the loss of cooperative identity that affected similar institutions in the past.

The minister, who also supervises cooperative affairs, disclosed this in Lagos during the South-West Zonal Engagement of the ministerial advocacy tour on the Cooperative Bank of Nigeria share capital mobilisation and cooperative sector digitalisation drive.

Abdullahi said the engagement marked the formal commencement of two major initiatives under the Renewed Hope Cooperative Reform and Revamp Programme (RH-CRRP) 2025–2030, approved at the 8th Regular Meeting of the National Council on Cooperative Affairs in March 2026.

Abdullahi said the proposed Cooperative Bank would operate under a carefully designed equity framework to ensure cooperators retain control of the institution.

According to him, 65 per cent of the bank’s controlling equity will be reserved for cooperative societies, unions, federations, and individual cooperators. In comparison, 30 per cent of the non-controlling equity will be open to private institutional investors, development finance institutions, impact investors, and qualified individuals. The remaining five per cent equity participation, he said, would be allocated to employees of the bank and affiliated cooperative enterprises.

He stressed that the initiative was government-enabled but not government-funded, noting that no Treasury Single Account funds would be used for the project.

Abdullahi added that the Cooperative Bank of Nigeria was designed to provide accessible and affordable financial services to cooperators, farmers, artisans, traders, small and medium-scale enterprises, youths, women and persons with special needs.

He described the launch of the advocacy tour in the South-West as symbolic, noting that the region was the birthplace of Nigeria’s cooperative movement.

“To avoid past pitfalls where cooperative banks lost their identity, the new bank has a deliberate ownership structure.

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security will provide only policy support, stakeholder coordination, and regulatory facilitation.

Commencing this tour in the South-West is a symbolic return to the roots of the cooperative movement in Nigeria. This is where it all began in 1937 with Gbedun Cooperative, and we should relaunch our reform agenda here,” he said.

The minister also announced plans to introduce two digital identity systems to strengthen governance and transparency within the cooperative sector.

He explained that the Cooperative Verification Number would be assigned to every registered cooperative society to verify genuine cooperatives, eliminate ghost societies, improve regulation and boost investor confidence, while the Cooperative Members Identification Number would be issued to every cooperator in Nigeria to enhance financial inclusion, traceability and access to financing.

According to him, both systems would be integrated with the National Identity Number architecture to align with national data systems and provide the data backbone for the proposed Cooperative Bank.

Abdullahi further outlined the seven pillars of the RH-CRRP 2025–2030 to include cooperative governance and institutional reforms, cooperative financing and establishment of the Cooperative Bank of Nigeria, sector digitalisation and data management systems, capacity building and cooperative education, value chain development, inclusion of youths and women, and strategic partnerships for global competitiveness.

“The Cooperative Bank will serve as the entry point into a broader ecosystem through the proposed Cooperative Trust & Investment Society of Nigeria, CoopTrust. This extends investments into housing, transport, retail, agro-processing, and digital platforms for our cooperatives,” he said.