BRIDGETOWN, Barbados–While the credit union movement in Barbados has made a sterling contribution to the development of the economic landscape in this country, some concern has been expressed about the lack of growth in farming, marketing and other cooperatives.
According to the Barbados Advocate, Dr. Philmore Alleyne, a lecturer in accounting at the UWI, Cave Hill Campus, noted his concern about the issue during a lunch-time Co-operative Forum held here ahead of International Co-operators Day.
Dr. Alleyne participated in a panel discussion held on the topic, “Is the Co-operative Sector the missing link in Barbados’ economic recovery?” He shared the panel with Jeremy Stephen, Lecturer in Economics at UWI and president of the Barbados Economics Society, the Barbados Advocate reported.
“Credit unions…play a vital role, where they provide access to low-cost financing. They have also transformed the economic and social status of members, but one important thing that I believe and I still argue that the credit union’s role has been, is in assisting in developing strategies of self-reliance, in dealing with individual community and national problems. That’s what the credit union has been doing, so it has been making that positive contribution right through,” Alleyne was quoted as saying by the Barbados Advocate. “Of concern to me is the pace of growth or lack thereof of cooperatives such as farming and retail, and other cooperatives (such as) marketing cooperatives in the movement. We do not have too many cooperatives that have been as successful as their credit union counterparts.”
Alleyne was quoted by the Barbados Advocate as adding, “While the larger credit unions have been successful, the smaller ones have struggled to meet compliance obligations, having aging membership, struggled to find management with the necessary experience and time to develop to cooperative activities and it is a fact. It is based on volunteerism and it does not have the glamour, I suspect, as the credit unions, because the credit unions are operating more like a banking operation in competition.”