Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry says the newly established National Cooperative Development Strategy is aimed at addressing challenges most cooperatives in the country face.
Ministry Public Relations Officer Godfridah Chanda told Money FM News in an interview that the strategy will also enable the Ministry to boost the capacity that is needed because most cooperatives are facing challenges ranging from capital to grow their business, poor governance structures, inadequate entrepreneurship and governance skills.
Ms. Chanda observed that in some instances, Cooperatives fail to respond and adapt to the micro-economic changing environment which also include low literacy and numeracy levels of understanding and adapting to the new Information Communication Technologies (ICTs).
“The coming of the National Cooperative Development Strategy is mainly to address challenges faced by most cooperatives and to ensure that we boost the capacity that is needed because we understand most cooperatives are facing challenges of capitalization, issues to do with finances, poor governance structures, inadequate entrepreneurship and governance skills.”
“So those are some of the things that we need to help our cooperatives into and that is the reason why the development of the strategy is key,” Ms. Chanda said.
She added that apart from addressing challenges, the strategy is very inclusive as it supports women and youth groups who are the most vulnerable.
“This strategy is very inclusive, supporting women and the youth because we understand this is the category that is very vulnerable.”
Recently, the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry launched the National Cooperative Development Strategy for 2019-2021 which will look at aspects and dynamics in the promotion of Cooperatives in the country.