Pineapple cooperative receives truck

A pineapple growing cooperative society, KOPANA (Cooperative pour la promotion de culture da’Annas), in Sake sector, Ngoma District in Eastern Province, yesterday received a brand new truck from the government. This follows a promise made by President Paul Kagame to the people of Sake sector that he will donate a truck to help in transporting their pineapples to Kigali to look for markets. He made the pledge when he visited the area last year during his tour of Eastern Province. The Minister of local government, James Musoni, accompanied by Prof. Manasseh Nshuti, Senior Economic Advisor to President, handed the brand new truck on the President’s behalf to Jean Bosco Niyibizi, the cooperative’s chairman. The move seeks to strengthen KOPANA cooperative in order to eradicate poverty in the area by growing more pineapples which will generate more income and employment opportunities to members of the community. In his remarks, Musoni told the residents of Sake that the government will continue to support the organization to achieve their objectives. He urged them to get loans from banks and invest in other areas of agricultural production. “Do not park the truck until you harvest your pineapples, you can use it to transport other things which will generate more income,” he advised. Minister Musoni urged them to continue working hard as always because through hard work, they can solve most of their problems. He stressed that there is no need to live in absolute poverty when they can work together to alleviate it using the resources and means available. Niyibizi thanked President Paul Kagame for having fulfilled his promise and revealed that the truck will strengthen the cooperative and enable it to support others. “We have been praying to get this truck to transport our pineapples to Kigali. President Kagame has answered our prayers. With this truck we are targeting to grow more pineapples on a 2000 hectare of land,” he said. It was reported that the cooperative previously harvested 152 tonnes of pineapples on a19 hectare piece of land which generated Rwf 12,160,000. It has 453 members. Ends