MUYINGA July 30th (ABP) – National Assembly Speaker Gélase Ndabirabe instructed the members of Sangwe cooperatives, on Wednesday in Muyinga (north-eastern Burundi), during an information meeting with them, to get ready to repay the loan of 10 million that the State granted to each village for self-development, a check on the site by ABP has revealed.
“Those who embezzle this money will be prosecuted by authorized bodies,” he warned. According to Mr. Ndabirabe, the members of the Sangwe cooperatives must stop having a very simplistic view of the said companies. These must be seen as centers of production of wealth for the village first then for the province and finally for the whole country.
For the speaker of the National Assembly, the means coming from the Sangwe cooperatives could help in other sectors of national life. Also, they must in the near future raise the agro-pastoral sector to a very appreciable level. This is why those cooperatives must plan their activities taking into account the content of the communal community development plan (PCDC) and their action plans are to be drawn from those PCDCs. He further recommended to members of Sangwe cooperatives to collaborate with the administration and technical services to enhance all the properties of individuals as those of the State in order to succeed in the State’s bet to make agriculture and livestock the key to development.
Also, he invited the administrative officials at all levels to sensitize all those who are not members of Sangwe cooperatives to join others in the development of the country, whether willingly or by force. Mr. Ndabirabe announced to the agro-pastoralists grouped together in those cooperatives that they will have some facilities including the loan of chemical fertilizers, the reimbursement of which will be made at harvest and will be able to take out insurance for their fields in an agricultural bank, including an agency that will soon be opened in Muyinga.
Some members who had invested in pig farming and whose animals were decimated by the plague, wanted to know how they are going to repay the loan while their project went bankrupt.
Others said they had received a loan of less than $ 10 million. The speaker of the National Assembly reassured them by stressing that there will be teams of assessors and will give opinions on one or the other situation.