Business Guide & Logistics, a cooperative multipurpose society was recently launched with much excitement and expectations. The multipurpose society is envisioned to be a leading cooperative society offering unique products and services with grassroots appeal.

According to Mr. Paulinus Eze, the president of the newly formed financial empowerment institution, BG& L Cooperative is positioned to become a world-class value-added investor in small and medium enterprises, thereby facilitating wealth generation, job creation and welfare for its members.

In his speech during the presentation of the grassroots body to interested Nigerians, the president charged the audience thus: "Only Nigerians can help develop Nigeria. All that we require in our nation for our prosperity, progress, and security will come from within us and, therefore, each one of us must be ready and willing to be part of it."

One way Nigerians can help themselves to attain financial freedom is by belonging to a cooperative societies of the sort of BG&L. "At BG&L we are poised to attain our vision by investing capital, skill and knowledge into viable entrepreneurial activities, and to develop business model that will be proactive, attractive, compensatory with the ultimate of achieving financial liberty for our members," hinted Eze.

BG&L is a focused multipurpose society with determination to aggressively assist its numerous members using the power of collective for mutual benefit or assistance.

Taking a look at present and past poverty alleviation/empowerment programmes and efforts, Eze lamented: "Why is it that all the poverty alleviation programmes introduced in our nation are not achieving their aim? Why is it that our co-operative societies are not meeting their members demand? Why is it that our co-operative, community and people's banks did not survive?

The answer lies in the fact that the masses are not carried along. The answer is an aggressive move against poverty. The answer is an aggressive attack from the masses grouping themselves together to tackle their common challenges."

It has been proven severally that cooperative societies have the potential to create job and empower members sustainably. Eze, a former commercial bank MD/CEO observed that: "For too long now government has been saddled with the responsibility of creating jobs for millions of Nigerians. But this is a responsibility which government finds very difficult to sustain in the modern World of shrinking resources and dwindling opportunities.

"Here is where the co-operative movement has a very important role to play. Co-operatives being aggregation of people of like minds coming together in order to achieve 'economic, social or cultural' ends, can easily pool resources together to embark on various economic activities spanning manufacturing, financial services, real estate development, commercial activities etc.

"With economic enterprises set up by co-operatives, millions of unemployed Nigerians will be gainfully employed within the co-operative movement, instead of relying on government for jobs that are not available."

Giving instances of where the cooperative movement is making impact in the lives of people, the president informed: "In Italy, for example, nearly one million people were employed by co-operatives in 2005; while in France, Co-operative provide four million jobs for their people. And in Kenya, our sister African country, co-operatives employ 250,000 people.

"As economic actors in national economies, co-operatives play a critical role in enterprise generation. In Belgium, for instance, pharmacies in that country control 19.5 per cent of the total market share of pharmaceuticals. In France, Co-operative banks handle 60 per cent of the total deposits in the banking system of that country. In the United States of America, the top 100 US co-operatives had combine revenue of USD117 billion in 2003.

"There is no better time to align with what is happening in other climes than now, when our democracy is blowing a new wind of change into our country", he said.