BUBANZA, November 13th (ABP) – The organization and/or the membership of women in self-development cooperatives is at a satisfactory pace in Bubanza province (north-west of Burundi). The provincial head of the Cooperative and Associative Movement, Edouard Nzambimana, told a check by ABP on Friday November 10, 2023.
He specified that the women’s cooperatives, already registered, which were 81 in September 2023, currently reach 110. Most of them operate in farming sector, practice savings and loan operations among themselves and others. More than 35 cooperatives among them have already benefited from loans from the Women’s Investment and Development Bank (BIDF), for the implementation of their projects, Mr. Nzambimana continued to say while commending the dynamism of those cooperatives in the implementation of such projects.
He gave the example of the women’s cooperative “Twiyungunganye Bakenyezi”, from Buzige in Bubanza commune, made up of 30 members who started business with 250,000 BIF as a seed capital, which currently reaches a turnover ranging between 3, 5 and 4 million BIF, within 8 months. The cooperative’s members practice agriculture, savings and loans, as well as the broom trade.
However, that cooperative manager deplores the dysfunction in the leadership of certain women’s cooperatives, where some leaders of cooperatives manage them as private property, which is an obstacle to their development. As far as he is concerned, he indicates that he encounters the lack of transport means for effective monitoring and supervision of cooperatives working in that province.
He calls on women and other people to team up into self-development cooperatives because, he explained, the latter help them improve their living conditions. To the leaders of those organizations, he asks them to work in the interest of the members.
Note that the cooperatives already registered within the provincial Bureau responsible for the Cooperative and Associative Movement are 353 in number, among them are those of women, youth, Sangwe and others.