12/06/2026
Cooperation amongst Cooperatives 🤝
We were delighted to welcome Zeleke Yibetale from the Ethiopian Cooperative Commission (ECC), along with Sinéad Lynam and Liam Morrissey from the ILCU International Development Foundation, to Cavan Credit Union.
Zeleke is the Head of Regulation for Savings and Credit Cooperatives (i.e. credit unions). The ECC is currently working on reforms aimed at strengthening cooperative societies as actors in Ethiopia’s domestic economy, including improvements to organisation, governance, market competitiveness, financial capacity, and regulatory oversight. The Foundation's current programme of support in Ethiopia seeks to increase access to finance for women and smallholders households. This will be achieved by building capacity to promote an inclusive, modern, and sustainable rural financial sector, working alongside key stakeholders including the ECC.
As part of the visit to Cavan, Julie Galligan, Head of Lending, and Hannah Daly, Business Development & Marketing, provided a background of the credit union, current operations, the products and services provided to members including the Cultivate loan product, and spoke about the challenges and successes of the credit union.
A valuable experience and a reminder of the power of cooperation 💚