Holds 8th AGM in Abuja
By Gift Olivia Samuel, The Sight News
ABUJA: The Ministry of Defence Staff Agricultural Co-operative Society (MODACS) on Saturday held its 8th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Abuja, where it urged members to embrace small scale farming.
Speaking to The Sight News at the AGM, the President, Dr. Adigwu Edache encouraged members to start small farming activities, to ensure that they sustain themselves as civil servants.
He noted that with the robust plan now by the federal government, especially the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy on agriculture, MODACS is ready to promote members with viable agric business.
Dr. Edache revealed that his administration has achieved 75 percent of the promises made to members, adding that its membership base has now increased to 5,800.
According to him, “We promised a 7-Point agenda and just in one year, we have achieved five, we have done about 75 percent of what we promised. We promised to give good accommodation to our members, a lot of people have keyed into the process and projects are ongoing.
“We also promised increased dividends for members. Whatever we are sharing today is about 300 percent higher than what we shared last year.
“We promised to build confidence as people were disarrayed but today there is confidence in MODACS, everyone is happy. MODACS is the best Cooperative in Nigeria, we came in with membership strength of 3,500 but now we have about 5,800 active members.
“We promised to develop our lands and people are already working. For those that have farms, we want to encourage members to start small farming activities to see how, outside government salaries, what we can do on our own to sustain ourselves as civil servants, we need to think towards that direction.
“Federal government may not be able to pay salaries for the next few months to come due to fall in oil price, so, we are thinking, what can we do as civil servants, can we start a small scale farming to contribute to the society and the federal government?
“There is a robust plan now by the federal government, if you look at the CBN policy on agriculture, we can promote anybody if you have a viable agric business, we can partner with federal government to give us loans for our members, especially those in Agriculture, to see how we can promote them.
“We intend to encourage our members, especially those that are borrowing for school fees and house rent to begin to think of other things to do with the money. Can we start small businesses like farming, agriculture, fisheries to bring these stuffs on board to sustain the family? Members will be encouraged to access loans that can make them self sustaining and help the family”, he emphasized.
For his part, the President, Abuja Cooperative Federation (ABCOF) Mr Emmanuel Atama, stated that MODACS has done a lot, and they are looking to ensure that the cooperative help its members to meet their target before leaving service.
In the area of farming, he said “We are well placed at the CBN Financial Inclusion Steering Committee and in my capacity as the Chairman of Product Working Group, Cooperatives have been given a lot of access.
“We have about 500 hectares of land that have been procured through lease agreement for our members to participate in Agriculture. We have been doing a lot in giving them access to land, finance, input and Market”, he noted.
He stressed that the Cooperative is all about self- help and assisting members to have savings that leads to retirement time.
