Members of Parliament have expressed concerns about the sluggish pace of digitising cooperatives, despite the government's substantial investment in this endeavour.

The government has already spent more than Rwf 260 million for the development of a digital system aimed at streamlining services such as registration, inspection, evaluation and so on.

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The system in question, the Cooperative Information Management System (CIMS), is an end-to-end automated structure designed to encompass various essential modules regarding the functioning of cooperatives, including registration, transformation, dissolution, amendment, inspection, arbitration, capacity-building, mergers, monitoring and so on.

However, according to a report presented by the Parliamentary Committee on Economy and Trade to the plenary, only one of the 11 modules that the system provides is being used so far.

During the compilation of the report, the MPs on the committee interacted with officials at the trade and industry ministry, the Auditor General’s office, and the Rwanda Cooperatives Agency (RCA), a regulation, promotion, and capacity-building for cooperatives.

The CMIS was expected to bring about benefits, including improved transparency, real-time data updates, access to historical data, cost reductions through economies of scale, simplified procurement of goods and services, streamlined registration of new entities, and increased opportunities for cooperatives to diversify and enter new markets.

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The MPs were informed during the report compilation that the system’s underutilisation is mainly due to a lack of training for the individuals who are required to operate it, including district and sector employees and RCA staff.

Additionally, it was noted that a significant number of cooperatives lack essential IT tools such as computers, and many face challenges in terms of accessing amenities like electricity and the internet.

The MPs urged relevant authorities, including the trade and industry ministry and the RCA, to address these issues. They emphasised the importance of ensuring the registration and categorisation of all cooperatives, as one of the ways to know their status and their needs.

They also asked the relevant institutions to offer advice on how training can be offered to the cooperatives, or how volunteers like secondary school or university graduates can be asked to offer services in running the system at some levels, for example. They also asked about the possibility of offering such IT services for cooperatives at the sector level by some designated workers.

Earlier this year, figures from RCA indicated that there are about 9,706 cooperatives in Rwanda with a share capital of more than Rwf47.8 billion.

All the cooperatives count over five million members (comprising over 2.77 million men, and over 2.25 million women).