Previously, there was rampant mismanagement and members have been complaining over a number of issues including unjustified contributions that were imposed without their consent, embezzlement of funds among others.

The New Times’ Diane Mushimiyimana had a chat with Prof. Jean Bosco Harelimana, the new Director General of the Rwanda Cooperatives Agency to lean about their strategies to revamp the sector.

From a business perspective, how do observe the status of cooperatives?

Obviously cooperatives have a big role to play in the development of the country’s economy. Most of the cooperatives began from scratch but now have become major producers and investors in several sectors including commerce, housing, banking, transport, agriculture, livestock, and mining among others.  As matter of fact the new commercial buildings in the city showcase the power of working together.  Cooperatives have been increasing in numbers from 946 in 2006 to 8800 made by over 3 million members to date.

Cooperatives have been faulted for poor management of fund which has been affecting operations and development of cooperatives, as well as their members. What are you doing so far to solve the existing issues?

In fact getting moving and thriving cooperatives industry is our paramount goal and to meet this end we are undertaking different measures to fill the existing gaps and move ahead with a new positive image. Now, we are much into restructuring managerial system of cooperatives. The move is part of efforts to curb rampant embezzlement and poor accountability for funds in various cooperatives, leading to losses.

Under the cooperatives month campaign we started with motorists and Irish potatoes cooperatives but the next step is to see the whole industry restricted because we want to see well organized, stable and well managed cooperatives with membership centered management.

Apart from restructuring we are also including capacity building by imparting cooperative managerial skills that included administration, well-informed decision-making, and financial management for the advancement of the cooperatives. We wants them all to have financial activity reports, and proper record keeping so as to achieve accountability in their operations.

The government set standard guidelines to regulate the Irish potato business after it emerged that farmers were incurring gross losses at the hands of unscrupulous traders, who would also fraudulently make abnormal profits through hiked retail prices and cheating final consumers.

The issues regarding Irish potatoes trade is among our priorities because we understands its impact in the national food security. We want to make sure cooperatives from famers, collections centers and trade chain are abiding by the rules.

Currently we are undertaking the discussions with all the stakeholders at grassroots level starting from tomorrow in Kinigi Musanze district and we hope all the issues involved will come to end to have more transparent trade chain and stabilized Irish potato prices.  

Mismanagement of cooperatives for taxi motor operators has resulted in members losing interest in giving contributions because they claim that they do not get benefits from the money they contribute.  Do you think motorists will win back this trust?

During our audits, we realized that funds of members were mismanaged by heads of cooperatives  and some have been faulted of  taking decisions alone, and in their own interest, not that of the cooperative.

And when we started our restructuring move the motorists were happy to elect their new leaders and chase those who were faulted for embezzlement.

From May 7 to May 21, 2018, an election was made for their committees from cooperative level, up to federation at national level.

The former leaders who were reported to have poor administration and mismanagement of funds were not eligible for election in a new leadership.

We have trained those new leaders, and we believe they will act fulfill their responsibilities of working in the interest of all their cooperative members and reestablish the trust of their motorcyclists members.

There were cases of embezzlement of funds in cooperatives especially in Umurenge Saccos, leaving millions of francs lost. What should be expected from the new reforms?

The fact that Saccos are still using manual systems that are susceptible to manipulation and poor management of members’ contributions is our concern.

Over the past two years, we have been learning how to automate the Saccos operations by sing computerized systems.

We are progressing well in operations and we expect that by the end of 2019 all Saccos will be fully automatic.   This move will have a great impact on transparent management of saccos accounts.

Also there is a plan to merge saccos in every district into a single entity that would then have a stake in the co-operative bank. This is expected to improve service delivery for members through products like ATMs, mobile banking and agent banking.

Where do you see cooperatives in the next five years?

Well, I expect to see the spirit of working in cooperatives rooted in all Rwandans thanks to the foundation we are laying now of professional management. Success stories from those we will be able to build will encourage more people to join cooperatives especially the youth.

We expect to have well founded cooperatives which play as the leading business and job opportunity for the country by making bigger investments in primary sectors of development