Chaguanas, Trinidad – September 28, 2020: The Honourable Fitzgerald Hinds, Minister of Youth Development and National Services pledged his Government’s committment to working with the credit union movement towards development and success of the sector. This assurance was given at the Central Finance Facility (CFF) virtual Thought Leadership Session themed ‘Improving Credit Union Competitiveness in the Covid-19 era and beyond’. In its continued commitment to provide leadership and engender ‘Co-operation among Co-operatives’, the CFF’s virtual session took place on September 18th, 2020. It was attended by over twenty (20) Credit Unions with a total of over one hundred (100) participants benefiting from the session.
The Honourable Minister Hinds delivered the feature address on the topic: ‘How can Credit Unions enhance their competitiveness by being partners with Government in improving the lives of their members’. The newly appointed Minister has the responsibility for Co-operative Development and, in this his first public address since being appointed, expressed confidence in a smooth working relationship with the CFF and Co-operative sector through the co-operative development division. Some of the key areas of focus will be enhancing training mechanisms and increasing the knowledge of the current and projected membership with particular emphasis on the youth.
The Honourable Minister added that Government has been working diligently with the co-operative sector to create a legislative policy and action plan based on the International Labour Organisation’s recommendation which speaks to the promotion of co-operatives in the workplace. He assured attendees that the Ministry remains faithful and will carry on the work of swift implementation of those recommendations with the Co-operative sector.
The Virtual Thought Leadership session also featured expert panellists in the areas of human resources, technology, entrepreneurship and digital marketing. Ms. Hermise Duncan Alexander – HR Consultant/Entrepreneur gave valuable insight on improving competitiveness by enhancing leadership and governance competencies. Likening an organisation’s functioning to that of the human body, she stressed that leadership was as equally important to the organisation as the heart is to the body. Mr. Ronald Hinds – CEO Teleios Systems Limited spoke on improving competitiveness in the new normal using cloud based models. Mr. Jaysen Francis – Founder and CEO of LXE/Entrepreneurial and Start-Up Coach provided concepts in Improving Competitiveness through the value proposition of empowering members through entrepreneurship and by creating sustainable investments. The last speaker, Mr. Kristofer Granger – Marketing and Brand Genius addressed improving competitiveness by building and maintaining trustworthy member relationships in an online environment. Mr. Granger highlighted the necessity of good content via marketing platforms which will add value to current strategies geared towards the credit union and cooperative sector membership.
Feedback from the participants indicated that the information coming out of the discussions was relevant and important during these current times. The CFF’s Thought Leadership meetings continue to provide a forum for the credit union membership to interact with industry experts from a number of related fields. The Central Finance Facility remains committed to its mandate of developing the institutional capacity of the co-operative credit union sector.
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