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By Chinelo Obogo
Seamfix Limited has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the Cooperative Federation of Nigeria to develop and deploy the National Cooperative Smart Registry, a national digital registry for registering and verifying Nigeria’s cooperative societies and their members.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed at an official ceremony held in Abuja and presided over by the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security and Supervising Minister of Cooperative Affairs, Sen. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, on 12th August 2026.
The digital infrastructure comprises the National Cooperative Smart Registry (NCSR), the Cooperative Verification Number (CVN) for cooperative societies, and the Cooperative Member Identification Number (CoopID), which links every cooperative member’s verified identity to their National Identification Number (NIN). Cooperative societies will be given a digital register that ties each member’s CoopID directly to their NIN. The NCSR is designed to support, not replace, the statutory registration and regulatory responsibilities of the Federal Department of Cooperatives at the national level, and the State and FCT Departments and Directorates of Cooperatives within their respective jurisdictions.
Nigeria has more than 370,000 registered cooperative societies spanning agriculture, commerce, manufacturing, housing, transport and finance. Despite the sector’s scale and economic significance, fragmented records and manual verification processes have held the sector back.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Minister said: “The Federal Government is committed to building a cooperative sector that is modern, transparent, accountable and fully integrated into Nigeria’s formal economy.
The National Cooperative Smart Registry will establish a trusted national framework for verified cooperative information while preserving the statutory powers of the Federal, State and FCT cooperative regulatory authorities within their respective jurisdictions.
“The successful implementation of this initiative will depend on close collaboration with the Federal Department of Cooperatives and the State and FCT Departments and Directorates of Cooperatives, whose registration and regulatory responsibilities are central to the integrity and sustainability of the system.
“Through NCSR, we will improve regulatory coordination, strengthen the targeting of government interventions, reduce fraud and duplication, and make genuine cooperative societies and their members more visible within the systems established to serve them.
“The Cooperative Federation of Nigeria, as the umbrella body of the cooperative movement, will support sectoral sensitisation, engagement and mobilisation, while Seamfix Limited will provide the required technical infrastructure. By bringing together government regulatory institutions, the cooperative movement and our technical partner, we are laying the foundation for greater trust, financial inclusion, agricultural transformation, food security and inclusive economic growth.”
Also speaking, the Group CEO of Seamfix Limited, Chimezie Emewulu, said: “At Seamfix, we believe that identity is not a privilege; it is a right. And the right to be seen, verified, and trusted is the foundation on which everything else in a modern economy is built. The NCSR is not just a registration programme; it is infrastructure, the layer that connects a cooperative to the systems built to serve it. We are honoured to be the partner delivering this alongside the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, and we are committed to doing so with the same rigour we have brought to every national programme we have built.”
The Executive Director and COO of Seamfix Limited, Frank Atube, said: “For too long, this sector has operated without a digital system connecting its records, a gap that has left cooperatives relying on manual processes to manage their members’ identity information, and government interventions struggling to reach the right beneficiaries. Through the CVN, every registered cooperative society gets a verified digital identity. Through the CoopID, every cooperator’s identity is tied directly to their NIN, making them visible not only to the communities that have always known them, but to the formal economy that was always meant to serve them.”
Under the agreement, FMAFS will provide national policy direction and regulatory leadership; the State and FCT cooperative authorities will serve as essential implementation collaborators within their jurisdictions; CFN will lead stakeholder engagement and mobilisation; and Seamfix Limited will provide the technology and infrastructure required to deploy and operate the platform.
