The objectives of the Agency are to—
| (a) | support, promote and assist with the development of co-operatives; |
| (b) | provide financial and non-financial assistance to co-operatives to enable the development of co-operatives, provided that deposit-taking financial co-operatives will not be eligible for financial support, but will be eligible for non-financial support; |
| (c) | provide business support services, including but not limited to pre-registration support, registration, business plan development, mentorship and post-registration support and access to market services to co-operatives; |
| (d) | provide assistance and support to the registrar for the registration and deregistration of co-operatives; |
| (e) | provide, facilitate and coordinate training and education support to co-operatives; |
| (f) | assist co-operatives in fully complying with the requirements of this Act; |
| (g) | provide access to information regarding all products, programmes and services available to co-operatives; |
| (h) | raise awareness of and research into any matter affecting the effective, efficient and sustainable functioning of co-operatives and the cooperatives sector; |
| (i) | provide the necessary support within the Agency’s capacity to enable individual co-operatives to become and remain operational; |
| (j) | report to the Tribunal and any other relevant role-players on co-operatives that the Agency has supported; |
| (k) | carry out independent review reports on behalf of the qualifying primary co-operatives and ensure that such co-operatives submit these reports to the registrar; and |
| (l) | develop and maintain data on co-operatives in partnership with the registrar, relevant national and provincial departments, municipalities and other role players. |
[Section 91B inserted by section 66 of Notice No. 558, GG 36729, dated 5 August 2013]
