THE province of Maguindanao has the highest number of registered cooperatives among the other provinces across the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Barmm).

Samcia Ibrahim, Cooperative and Social Enterprise Authority (CSEA) head, said of the 12,058 registered cooperatives across Barmm as of June 25, a total of 5,439 were registered in Maguindanao.

CSEA is one of the offices under the Office of the Chief Minister of Barmm.

CSEA, formerly known as Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), mainly serves as a regulatory agency mandated for the registration of cooperatives; extend technical guidance; capability building; and inspection, monitoring, and validation of cooperative business operations in the autonomous region.

Ibrahim said other provinces have registered cooperatives as follows: Lanao del Sur, 4,515; Sulu, 1,040; Tawi-Tawi, 711; and, Basilan, 353.

Ibrahim said among the listed types of registered cooperatives were advocacy, agrarian, agriculture, consumer, credit, dairy, education, federation, fisherman, marketing, multi-purpose, producer, service, traders, transport, union, and workers.

Producer (4,106) and marketing (3,586) turned out to be the leading types of cooperatives registered in Barmm, while traders and dairy became the least types that have been registered.

“Based on our continuous monitoring, there are 8,785 males and 1,764 females, either members or officers of the registered cooperatives, who are actively engaged in the cooperative activities,” Ibrahim said.

She emphasized that numerous members of the cooperatives are former combatants. (SunStar Zamboanga)