Women and Youth-led Cooperative Societies Thriving

WOMEN and youth-led cooperatives have increased in the service sector, says Ministry of Trade and Communications permanent secretary for Shaheen Ali.

Mr Ali said they were proud this increase in demand has resulted in more cooperatives led by women and youth being registered.

“The youth groups coming together and having an entrepreneurship idea and forming a cooperative business which gives them the flexibility to be able to pull their resources, pull their talents and form these cooperatives,” he said.

“It is heartening to know that this is increasing, and we are also encouraging it because once you form a cooperative business, you become a job creator rather than a job seeker.

“And this is what our policy in the Ministry of Trade with the complementary young entrepreneurship scheme.

“One of the KPIs the cooperatives department has been from the very start is when cooperatives are formed the office barriers from the directors, chairman, we would like to see what is the number of women that are the office barriers, and what are the number of youths that are office barriers and have direct influence into the operations of the cooperative.”

The Fiji Times