The Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry says it has developed the National Cooperative Development Strategy for 2019-2021 which will look at aspects and dynamics in the promotion of Cooperatives in the country.
Speaking in an interview with Money FM News, Ministry Public Relations Officer Godfridah Chanda said the vision of the strategy is to develop a robust and diversified Cooperative movement by 2021.
Ms. Chanda stated that one of the objectives that the Ministry wants to achieve is to conduct publicity programs on the need to diversify Cooperatives into various sectors of the economy.
She observed that in terms of meeting the requirements to operate a Cooperative, most of them are not meeting the target, hence, leading to the collapse of the entities.
“The Ministry has gone on now to put everything into perspective, by developing the National Development Strategy which will look at some of the aspects and dynamics which will be looked at into promotion of Cooperatives in the country.”
“We have cooperative officers who are monitoring and sensitizing cooperatives to just ensure that they are doing the right thing especially in terms of the structure because we have noticed that most cooperatives are family orientated, funded by either donors or other institutions and agencies,” Ms. Chanda stated.
Meanwhile, Ms. Chanda said the Ministry has however observed that there has been an increase in the number of Cooperatives diversifying from Agriculture into various sectors of the economy since the launch of the National Cooperative Strategy.
She noted that most Cooperatives are now diversifying into construction, housing, infrastructure, mining and financial institutions among other sectors.
Ms. Chanda said the Ministry has also observed that people are now trying to boost into serious business entities to an extent where they have started supplying to chain stores and other readily available markets.
“From the time the portfolio was launched, as a Ministry we have seen an increase in the number of cooperatives diversifying from Agriculture into construction, housing, infrastructure, mining, financial institutions and so on.”
“We have also seen an increase in the number of products that are coming from cooperatives with improved quality. We have discovered that most of the products they have added value to them and so there is a better understanding of how a product must be put on the shelf,” she observed.