Nine cooperatives based in Nyanza District, Southern Province, have merged under a nongovernmental body known as Amayaga Integrated Project for Development (AIPD), to ensure good management and coordination of their activities aimed at empowering the poorest people in the area.

In a function held at Busoro Sector in Nyanza, on Friday, the nine cooperatives were presented with licenses to operate in a move that is anticipated to make them more efficient.

The Chief Executive Officer of AIPD, Celestin Nzaramba, in his speech, commended the cooperatives for their efforts at empowering women, improving farming activities and ensuring that orphans and vulnerable youth attain formal education.

"This system will strengthen the cooperatives’ grassroots to help fight corruption among officials, so that benefits can trickle down to the real beneficiaries, who are the poor people in our community,” Nzaramba said.

"This will in the long run give us a voice to participate in decisions that affect farmers and all people in Nyanza, particularly in social and economic affairs.”

He added that AIPD would collectively identify and support entrepreneurial groups in Nyanza, as well as find market for their products.

"Here, very many farmers grow tomatoes and maize but they find it difficult to earn much from their products because of poor storage facilities. We are planning to build a huge storage facility for them so that they can sell their products at fair prices,” Nzaramba said.

At the function several local leaders and over 100 Nyanza residents and members of the nine cooperatives, shared ideas on how to better exploit government and non-government programs to bring development to their community.

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