1. What is a cooperative?

A cooperative is a democratic organization owned and operated by its members, who voluntarily come together to meet their shared economic, social, cultural, and environmental goals through collective action and mutual support. A cooperative is a member-owned, democratic organization formed by people who work together to meet shared needs.

2. What are the core values of a cooperative?

Core values include self-help, responsibility, democracy, equality, fairness, solidarity, honesty, and transparency.

3. What are the principles of cooperatives?

They include open membership, democratic control, member participation, independence, education, cooperation, and community care.

4. Who can join a cooperative?

Any Nepali citizen (16+), institutions, schools, local governments, and community groups supporting cooperative goals.

5. Types of cooperatives in Nepal:

• Saving and Credit Cooperative (SACOOS) 
• Agricultural  Cooperative  majorly Small Farmer Agriculture Cooperative Ltd. (SFACL )
• Multipurpose Cooperative
• Dairy Cooperative

6. General vs. Communication Members:

General members have full rights and voting power; communication members use services without full rights.

7. What is a general assembly?

An annual meeting to discuss policies, elect committees, and plan cooperative activities.

8. What is the Supervisory Committee?

A team that checks finances, operations, and submits quarterly reports to the general assembly.

9. What is duplicate membership?

Being a member of the same type of cooperative in more than one place, which is illegal.

10. What is a non-member transaction?

Providing services to non-members, which is restricted.

11. What is the credit limit?

Loan limit is up to 14.75% of the cooperative’s core capital (as of Kartik 2077).

12. What is a service charge?

A fee (1–1.5%) charged for loan services.

13. What is a merger?

Combining two or more cooperatives into one organization.

14. What is the PEARLS system?

A tool to measure performance: Protection, Efficiency, Asset quality, Return, Liquidity, and Growth.

15. What grants are available?

• Capital Grants
• Program Grants
• FEW (Female, Ethnic, and Marginalized) Grants

16. What is anti-money laundering (AML)?

Efforts to stop illegal financial activities and ensure transparency.

17. What is KYM (Know Your Member)?

A system to identify and verify cooperative members.

18. What is a Threshold Transaction (TTR)?

Any transaction over NPR 1 million, reportable within 15 days.

19. What is a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR)?

A report filed within 3 days if a transaction looks unusual or suspicious.

Note: The FAQs provided above have been carefully selected from official uploaded documents published by the Department of Cooperatives, Government of Nepal. This version is structured for clarity and accessibility for English-speaking readers.