Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA) has launched an investigation countrywide to detect ‘ghost and dormant cooperatives’ and results will be announced soon, officials said.

According to Patrice Mugenzi, the Director General of Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA), there are 11,000 cooperatives across the country with more than Rwf73 billion share capital, but some of them are ghost and dormant.

ALSO READ: New law to boost profitability of cooperatives

The investigation has been carried out in four provinces so far, he said.

"The investigation into ghost and dormant cooperatives has already started and has so far reached Eastern Province. Only the Western Province is yet to be reached. After nationwide assessment, we will soon announce the results. We have been detecting ghost and dormant cooperatives. They are written in papers but are not operational. Other cooperatives were founded by organisations and after the projects they were abandoned,” he said.

ALSO READ: Why poor management is threatening survival of coops

He explained that other cooperatives have members but are not running. "They are dormant due to mismanagement and bad leadership among other issues. These dormant cooperatives can be revived and supported,” he noted.

The assessment will also help to categorise cooperatives based on their financial capacity, initial capacity and assets, and number of cooperatives among others.

ALSO READ: Rwf200m mismanaged by cooperatives

On March 25, 2024, the Cooperative Week campaign was launched in three districts of Kigali as one of the ways to increase awareness of cooperative members on new cooperative law and Cooperative Management Information System (CMIS) and handle leadership and managerial-related issues.

Some of the campaign-related activities include analysing and addressing critical cases.

"We are enforcing the cooperative law and educating cooperatives on how to get legal personality. During the week dedicated to cooperatives, we have to work with districts to handle some issues in cooperatives. We have realised that cooperatives do not abide by the law. Cooperative members must have their rights ensured,” Mugenzi said.

The law says that the executive committee has a three-year renewable term.

However, he noted, that some cooperative leaders want to remain in leadership positions without term limits.

"This is punishable by the law. We are also reviewing the law to make some changes to improve cooperatives management,” he said.

Asset declaration to cope with embezzlement

The law seeks to address the unregulated remuneration of members of the cooperative executive committee which currently encourages embezzlement.

ALSO READ: Six cooperative leaders arrested over embezzlement

"The leaders and employees of the cooperatives will have to declare their assets before taking over leadership. This is one of the strategies to stamp out embezzlement haunting cooperatives,” he said, insisting that there are some cooperative leaders who have been exploiting cooperatives for their interests.

The cooperative agency also blacklists all leaders and employees convicted of mismanagement of the cooperative assets who are also not eligible to serve in any cooperative as leaders or managers.

"For instance, one member or all members of the Board of Directors, an employee or a member of a cooperative who fraudulently uses the property of a cooperative in his or her interests or for objectives other than those it was designed for; sells or damages fraudulently the property of a cooperative; commits an offence,” the law says.

Augustin Twagirayezu, the head of the cooperatives union comprising load lifting manpower (Abakarani) in Nyarugenge District, said there is a need for annual capacity building for the cooperatives leaders.

"Sometimes cooperative leaders make decisions that do not comply with the laws due to limited knowledge. The capacity building is needed every year because leaders have term limits and new ones need knowledge about cooperative management,” he said, and decried low wager per kilogramme of lifted load.

"We are still charging Rwf1.5 per kilogramme of lifted load yet we need Rwf5. We still have no access to bank loans given that we do not have collaterals. Addressing all these issues will foster load-lifting manpower development,” he added.