Rwanda: The cooperatives law to be updated
The Minister of Trade and Industry in Rwanda, Prof. Ngabitsinze Jean Chrysostome, expressed to the MPs that they want the law regulating cooperatives to be revised due to the gaps that still appear in it.
He revealed this on October 17, 2023, when he addressed the Parliament, the House of Deputies, on the issues that arise in cooperatives around the country.
Minister Ngabitsinze said that it is desired that the law regulating cooperatives be amended and include additions that were not foreseen.
He said, “Mismanagement in order to reduce it, we went to look at the policy of the cooperatives, we looked at the RCA has inspectors, we looked at those we found and how they are monitored and we found that we have gaps in the law.”
Some of the loopholes he pointed out in the law governing cooperatives was that it was seen as a motorcycle cooperative led by a teacher or someone else who does not know how their work is done on a daily basis.
This is also seen in various producer cooperatives such as rice farmers, wood processing cooperatives such as ADARWA and COPCOM.
He said, “If you look at Copcom cooperatives or ADARWA of Gisozi, there is a lack of voice of the business owners, you would go to the law and find it difficult to do anything about it, we want to see if we can solve the problem in the law.”
The campaign to form cooperatives was intensified in the early 2000s, and in 2007, a law regulating cooperatives was enacted.
The law regulating cooperatives in Rwanda was revised in 2021 but there are still gaps in the law which is why MINICOM indicates the need for reforms.
Statistics show that more than 70% of all Rwandans who have the ability to work, work in cooperatives.
THE RWANDA SUN
