Members of the House of Representatives expressed their support for the bill, which seeks to establish the Chartered Institute of Cooperative Social Enterprise Management in Nigeria.
The bill, which passed through the second reading, was sponsored by the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, and six others. It also seeks to regulate, control, and define the standards of knowledge to be attained by individuals seeking to become Chartered Cooperators and Social Entrepreneurs.
The objectives of the Institute include providing qualitative training and re-training to professionally empower individuals, efficiently facilitate operational compliance with existing laws, and self-regulate members for optimal results.
This includes explicitly defining professionalism among its practitioners, collaborating with regulatory authorities for full compliance with existing laws affecting cooperatives and social enterprises, and eliminating or ameliorating consequential breaches.
The Institute aims to empower cooperatives and social enterprises by broadening the coverage base of Nigeria’s capital market through joint investments, fostering all-inclusive participation that mitigates systemic shocks common in less diversified structures within the stock market.
It also seeks to empower cooperatives and social enterprises through access to and use of financial market instruments for long-term investments, particularly in reducing the costs of capital for more affordable financial operations.
Additionally, the Institute is expected to shield cooperatives and social enterprises from the challenges of raising finance by providing easier access to available and more affordable funding options to achieve members’ objectives and create new opportunities, especially in cases where none exist.
In his lead debate, Hon. Akiolu Moshood Kayode emphasised the need to professionalise the activities of practitioners within the third sector through qualitative training and re-training, facilitate operational compliance with existing laws, and ensure the furtherance, maintenance, and observance of ethical standards, discipline, and professionalism. He emphasised that the ultimate beneficiary of such professional conduct is the larger society.
He highlighted that the traditional focus of third-sector activity has been on social welfare, covering education, housing, health, and social justice.
However, this focus has expanded in the last two decades to include infrastructural services such as community waste management and support for the unemployed, ranging from providing basic necessities to giving work experience or re-skilling people for a changed work environment.
Hon. Kayode also noted that humanitarian work has evolved over the last three decades into a well-established full-time occupation.
Despite widespread training, it has not been carried out in an agreed-upon or systematic manner.
The absence of a professional association for humanitarian workers has led to challenges in defining competencies, distinguishing competent from incompetent practitioners, and establishing legal mechanisms within the humanitarian sector, including licencing and certification and a code of ethics.”
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