Panellist
Parallel Session 2.4: By Meeting Future Capital Needs
Sylvia Okilay-Paraguya is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Confederation of Cooperatives or NATCCO. NATCCO is a federation of 850 cooperatives with consolidated assets of US$6 billion owned by 6.4 million individual members and more than 2,000 offices. NATCCO’s services are clustered into three: Business- include the Central Fund, Payment Services including Remittances and Government Payments; Support Services- Education Training and Consultancy, Information Technology, Microfinance Innovation in Cooperatives and Member Relations and Networking; and Monitoring with Stabilization Fund System.
Sylvia has been working with the cooperative movement and the development NGOs for three decades, 28 years of which is in the cooperative movement. She has been a CEO of cooperative federations for more than two decades.
Sylvia was the Chairperson of CODE-NGO, the biggest coalition of NGO Networks in the country; She is presently the Chairperson of Network Consolidated Cooperative Bank, a consolidation of 6 cooperative banks where NATCCO is the Strategic Third Party Investor; and Balay Mindanaw Foundation, Inc. She had the chance to chair the National Cooperative Development Council and Philippine Cooperative Center. She has held various positions including being the Chair of the Foundation for a Sustainable Society Inc., a debt swap of Switzerland and Philippines, and Chair of the international Proxfin network which is coordinated by Desjardins International Development and brings together some 30 inclusive finance institutions.
She is a member of the Coop Sector Council of the National Anti-Poverty Commission. She was a former member of the Government Panel negotiating with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front for the years 2004-2008.
A chemical Engineer, she is a graduate of Master in Business Management of Asian Institute of Management, Makati City.