Brief History

When the late Bishop Most Rev. James Kwadwo Owusu assumed office on 30th June, 1973, as the first Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sunyani, he realized that the biggest problem facing the people in the then newly created Diocese was poverty and to have a long-term solution to this socio-economic problem was to empower the people financially. “The Bishop indicated “individually we are poor, but together we are not”. This idea was mooted when the late Nana Nana Oppong Peprah who had once worked at the Canadian Embassy in Accra and had a fair knowledge of Co-operatives and the late Mr. J. B.  Ackon Senior, visited the Bishop, and sold the co-operative idea to him, who wholeheartedly welcomed it.

Having identified this problem he had the:

1. Vision to alleviate poverty.
2. Mission to provide a reliable, convenient and efficient Co-operative financial services for the development of his people.

To do that, he created financial opportunities for the people using human, material and financial resources of the Church to establish a Co-operative Financial Institution called Brong Ahafo Catholic Credit Union (BACCU). BACCU was first established at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church, Wenchi in 1974. It was introduced in Techiman on 8th August 1975 in the St. Paul’s Catholic Church. It was one of the Developmental projects by the late Most Rev. James Kwadwo Owusu. May his soul rest in peace.

In order to build capacity for effective management of a reliable financial institution, the late Bishop sponsored people to London Claver House to study the Co-operative Systems from 1977-1978.

BACCU was re-registered in July 1978 as Brong Ahafo Catholic Co-operative Society for Development Ltd. (BACCSOD). 

BACCSOD from a very small and humble beginning is now an icon in the Co-operative financial sector just like the mustard SEED. In 1978, BACCSOD was launched in the St. Paul’s Catholic Church and registered in 1983 and was later established in other Catholic parishes. It started like a welfare fund or Susu. Two years after the creation of the Techiman Catholic Diocese in 2008, that is in the year 2010, the Techiman Diocesan BACCSOD Union Limited was formed to manage the BACCSOD Societies in the Catholic Diocese of Techiman.

This helped both the Dioceses of Sunyani and Techiman to effectively, monitor, supervise and manage the member Societies as the geographical areas decreased. The Techiman Diocesan BACCSOD Union Ltd. was registered on 31st day of May, 2016 with the:

Vision to support the BACCSOD Societies to alleviate poverty among their members

Mission to provide leadership to the BACCSOD, market their products and enable individual Societies to achieve their strategic goals.

On 5th September, 2016 the two Unions (Sunyani and Techiman) came together to form BACCSOD Regional Apex.  At the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the BRONG AHAFO RGION (BA@60), on 8th November 2019, BACCSOD was recognized for its reliable services and was awarded as the biggest and best performing Co-operative financial institution in the Region.

In the year 2024, a National body called, National Association of Catholic Co-operative Societies for Development Limited-Ghana (NACCSOD-Ghana) was formed to replace BACCSOD Regional Apex. NACCSOD was registered with four (4) member Unions. The Unions were:

1.  Sunyani Diocesan BACCSOD Union Ltd
2.  Techiman Diocesan BACCSOD Union Ltd
3. Tamale Arch Diocesan Union of Co-operative Societies for Development (TAUCSOD)
4. Goaso Diocesan Catholic Co-operative Society Ltd. (GODCCOS)