Members of cooperatives have been urged to improve service delivery to meet the target of improving lives.

The call was made Monday during the launch of the seventh week of Nkuwikorera, a Rwanda Governance Board campaign aimed at improving service delivery in all sectors.

The launch took place at Kigali Regional Stadium, Nyamirambo Sector, Nyarugenge District.

This week will be focusing on improving governance and management of cooperatives.

Activities will be dedicated to addressing challenges facing cooperatives, most of which are caused by poor management. 

The function brought together public officials and members of cooperatives in Kigali, who had the opportunity to raise different concerns they face.

There are 350 cooperatives in Nyarugenge District with more than 12,000 members involved in services, trading, agriculture, technology, transport, and manufacturing, among other sectors.

Nyarugenge Mayor Kayisime Nzaramba commended members of cooperatives for their commitment to overcome poverty through working together and urged them to improve services.

"Working in isolation cannot take us anywhere. It’s good to work together but it’s better to work efficiently because good service delivery is the backbone of our development,” she said.

Mayor Kayisime cited monitoring, sharing of information and capacity building of members as a mechanism to improve services in cooperatives.

Cooperatives are credited with not only improving livelihoods but also playing a big role in reconciliation. However, poor management still hinders their progress.

Members of cooperatives appealed for support from the Government in punishing those who embezzle their funds.

Deogratias Bizimana, who represented Rwanda Cooperative Agency, said inept leadership remains the main hurdle to the progress of cooperatives.

"Cooperatives are the key to poverty eradication and national development, yet there are still poor services, which hamper progress. Cooperatives should employ educated accountants, external auditors as well as increase trainings to overhaul their operations,” he said.

Dr Félicien Usengumukiza, head of research, governance and monitoring at Rwanda Governance Board, reiterated that improving service delivery in cooperatives is the key to their success.

"Delivering efficient services requires no money, but change of mindset. Many problems in cooperatives are induced by bad leadership and we hope to solve many of them throughout this week,” he said.

A similar launch took place in other districts countrywide.

There are over 8,000 cooperatives in the country with the capital of Rwf38 billion. 

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