SEEING the youth's potential, cooperatives are looking into engaging them to join as members.
Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) administrator Benjie Oliva said young people can play a big role in securing the future endeavors of the cooperatives here in the country.
“Iniisip rin kase ng iba na pag nasa cooperative, para sa matatanda lang (They are thinking probably that cooperatives are only for adults),” Oliva said on Wednesday, October 3, during the press conference of the 14th National Cooperative Summit at SMX Convention, SM Lanang Premier, Davao City.
“That’s why the best way to campaign and reach out to the youth is through the social media and through the brief videos that we provide to know more about the cooperatives,” Oliva added.
Oliva said by joining cooperatives the youth will be able to learn financial management and responsibilities at an early age.
“The advocacy of the cooperatives right now should focus more on the young people because they are the next generation of leaders that will be next in line in the cooperatives,” Oliva said
Based from the data of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the youth sector, aging from 15 to 24 years old, composes 19 percent or around 20 million of the country's total population.
Oliva added that if the young are trained well by being immersed with how the cooperative works, the youth will not have a hard time in understanding how cooperatives work when the time comes that they would become leaders of cooperatives.