The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security has launched the Co-operatives E-registry, an innovative step aimed at improving the economic and social status of the country’s people.
The co-operative movement began in 1937 with the White Nile agricultural schemes and was formalized in 1948 with the Co-operative Ordinance since its establishment in the 1850s to support the police forces.
After the Addis Ababa peace agreement, the Ministry of
Co-operative and Rural Development was formed.
In 1976, Southern Sudan enacted the Co-operative Society
Act, centralizing cooperative registration, which remained manual.
Following the 2011 Act, registration could be done by both
the national and state governments, but it was still a manual process.
A pivotal moment came in 2023 when South Sudanese officials
visited Kenya, where cooperatives are registered electronically.
The visit, supported by FAO, revealed the benefits of
digital systems for efficiency and management.
This experience has sparked efforts to modernize South
Sudan’s co-operative registration, moving towards electronic processes for
better transparency and growth.
Hussein Abdelbagi emphasized the importance of co-operatives
in fostering self-reliance and tackling the country’s poverty challenges.
“Co-operatives improve the economic and social status of the
people who are individuals cannot help themselves to attain better the standard
of living,” Abdelbagi stated at the launch in Juba on Tuesday.
Abdelbagi noted that co-operatives provide job opportunities
to everyone, particularly benefiting women, youth, and vulnerable groups.
One of the key objectives of e-registry is to foster better
communication and streamline the registration process for co-operatives.
“Electronic registration is an innovation and development in
the registration of co-operatives to be fostered, to preserve information on
co-operatives, and to describe the information on co-operatives, on
co-operatives’ culture, and know the status of the co-operatives briefly,”
Abdelbagi explained.
The launch of the Co-operatives E-registry is also seen as a
step toward greater unity and collaboration among local communities.
“If they are co-operative, also they will come up together
and they will have a decent job. Co-operative keeps people to be self-reliant,
and this is important for our community in South Sudan, so that they can have
self-reliance in their lives,” he remarked.
He stressed that the goal of co-operatives is not only to
help individuals but also to promote democratic values.
The launch of the new e-registry is a major step towards the
development of co-operative enterprises, farming, and ultimately improving the
livelihoods of South Sudanese citizens.
The minister further echoed that, “If you didn’t gather up
to come as a group, we have no time for you to support. And this is important.
Because without co-operatives, if you give individuals, you will go and try one
time, and you forget about it. But if they are a group, they will make sure
that they are going in the right direction."
With the launch of the Co-operatives E-registry, the government aims to empower communities, boost economic independence, and provide a foundation for long-term growth in South Sudan.