Author: JAMES KAMALA
AfricaPress-Tanzania: The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture Gerald Kusaya has reiterated that the government will continue ensuring that Cooperative Societies become sustainable and benefit its members, besides contributing to the country’s economic growth.
Mr Kusaya made remark in Dar es Salaam, recently during the World commemoration Day of Cooperative Societies in Morogoro in an event attended by the Tanzania Federation of Cooperatives (TFC).
He said that cooperative societies are the heart of economy; therefore the government will do whatever it takes to ensure they benefit individual citizens from village to the national levels.
“The government is side by side participating with cooperatives to ensure they benefit their members, who are also paying taxes from them through the sale of their produce locally or at the international market,” said Mr Kusaya.
he cited cashew nut that is one of the crops being traded by cooperative societies, saying that last year, alone the government was able to collect more than 12.7bn/- as taxes and levies from the crop. earlier, TFC chairperson Theresia Chitumbi commended the government for taking action against cooperative unions that were embezzling funds of the members.
“TFC commends the government for the measures it has taken against unscrupulous and corrupt cooperative union leaders, who among others sell members’ assets illegally, ” added Ms Chitumbi.
On his part, the Registrar of Co-operatives Societies and the Chief executive officer and Tanzania Cooperative Development Commission (TCDC), Dr Benson Ndiege directed leaders of the unions to prioritize interest of the wider society rather than personal ones.
“It is important for each member to benefit from his/ her cooperative society, and it is time now for the Cooperatives to ensure that they are accountable to the members,” added Dr Ndiege.
