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In Africa, cooperatives have become a vehicle for achieving access and control over economic, social, and political resources as well as opportunities for women entrepreneurs in the continent.
According to a December 2016 journal report by Science Direct quoting the International Labour Organization, “Women tend to feature more heavily in the informal sector than men. An estimated 84% of women in Sub-Saharan Africa are engaged in vulnerable employment, the informal sector, primarily in trade, compared with only 69.5% of men.”
With limited job opportunities in the formal sector, women have leveraged this area to form an important factor in their livelihoods and economic empowerment. Yet with a growing participation in large and small-scale entrepreneurial activities, women’s businesses still face traditional and gender-based barriers.
To navigate these waters, women entrepreneurs have begun to leverage the use of cooperatives as tools to upscale their businesses and achieve financial, social, political, and economic inclusion and empowerment of their members.
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), “A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise. Cooperatives are based on the principles of voluntary and open membership; democratic member control; member economic participation; autonomy and independence; education, training and information; cooperation among cooperatives; and concern for community.”
Benefits of Cooperatives as A Tool for Upward Mobility
For women entrepreneurs in Africa, mobilizing themselves under varied forms of cooperatives has provided them with opportunities that guarantee them more access to financial support whereby each cooperative offers credit advancements at low or negligible interest rates that ordinarily cannot be accessed in financial institutions.
Several of these cooperatives also offer microfinance initiatives that encourage a saving culture, especially among women entrepreneurs. Daily savings or what could be referred to as isusu in Nigeria ensures that by inculcating a saving habit, especially among small-scale women entrepreneurs, the capacity to restock, purchase raw materials, and meet pressing financial obligations does not become overwhelming for these women entrepreneurs.
Cooperatives, understanding the importance of financial literacy and the acquisition of the right technical skill as a critical tool to ensure business sustainability, provide training in key business areas that empower women entrepreneurs with the capacity to plan financially, manage resources, wade through respective industrial sector and ensure improved productivity in their businesses.
More importantly and perhaps one of the great benefits of African cooperatives and their impact in uplifting African women entrepreneurs is their capacity to foster cross-transaction among their members.
By providing a platform where women entrepreneurs across all industrial sectors can meet, cooperatives provide a large body of potential business partnerships that can be explored thereby ensuring the collective growth of its members.
Cooperatives, especially those strictly owned by women, also provide governments and development agencies with the platform to design and shape gender-focused policies and programs that are targeted at women’s empowerment. Not only do they provide data for measuring the number of women entrepreneurs, but they also provide critical assessment reports based on the needs of its members.
Finding Success Through Cooperatives in Africa
- Edith Chemojor who is from Kenya is a dairy farmer and equally a member of the Baringo Agricultural Marketing Services Cooperative Society Limited (BAMSCOS) which is an association made up of members who are into Diary and Coffee agricultural activities.
- Through BAMSCOS and the support of her spouse, Edith was able to partake in a training program that focused on animal husbandry, animal feed preparation, and conservation thereby providing her with knowledge and the right skills to enable her access credit and finance through the Tarkawas Village and Savings Loan Association (VSLA) of which she is now a member.
- With their current stock of cows, she and her husband have not only increased their milk production through the preparation of various animal supplements, but Edith has also started exploring agricultural farming as another way to augment her income.
- BAMSCOS is an equal opportunity cooperative society offering a dual membership system that accommodates spouses as part of its base. They hold an active membership base of about 13,000 out of which 30% are women. (WeEffect.Org)
- In Morocco, a group of women driven by a need to improve their income base and provide support to their families came together to form an agricultural cooperative known today as the Taymate Cooperative.
- With a membership base made up of 15 women and 5 men, the goal of the cooperative is to produce, process, collect, and package Olives. According to Growing Africa, a digital publication by the African Plant Nutrition Institute (APNI), “The cooperative aims to add value to harvested olives, preserve the olive trees of the Timoulilt commune, and engage women to improve their income levels and, subsequently, their family’s standard of living”.
- The Taymate Cooperative has attracted support from several notable organizations such as the European Committee for Agricultural Training (CEFA), and the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) as well as certificates for its products such as the Food Safety Certificate, the Independent Export Control and Coordination Organization Certificate (EACCE).
- Members have achieved a measure of independence and financial freedom from being part of this cooperative as testified by 60-year-old Fatiha, a treasurer of the cooperative whose membership has enabled her to support her family who had been weighed down by illness and various handicaps. (Growing Africa)
With several other examples that abound, cooperatives have continued to offer alternatives for African entrepreneurs to access opportunities and resources critical to upscaling their businesses more so in the absence of government intervention or support. Easy to form, the value of cooperatives as a vehicle by which entrepreneurs can upscale their businesses, and achieve the goal of financial freedom as well as support cannot be underestimated. For women entrepreneurs, navigating the traditional and gender-biased limitations in some African societies can prove herculean. But cooperatives not only provide women entrepreneurs with a support base to overcome every hurdle, but they also present an opportunity to network, expand their reach, and remain critical contributors to the economic development of the continent.
Okechukwu Nzeribe works with the Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, in Anambra State, Nigeria, and loves unveiling the richness of African cultures. okechukwu.onicima@gmail.com
