Professor Abiti Joyce Befu, MG 66, and MEGA-1 has commanded us, ordered us, to tell the story of cooperative societies or Saccos in Rwanda. You know her word is law, at least to us.
We were in Rwanda the other day, the other year, almost decade ago. We attended two events at Rukomo and Rurenge. Something has remained indelible in our minds.
At Rukomo we had found 70 men and women attending classes on small and medium business management. Of the 70, 29 were women. We decided to find out from the women what motivated them to attend training amidst so many men. Our guide and interpreter called one woman for an interview.
Q: It’s nice to see you in the training. What are you learning?
Trainee: Bookkeeping, call it accounting for small businesses.
Q: How much have you paid for the course?
Trainee: It is free. They have given us food, learning and writing materials.
Q: No allowance?
Trainee: What is allowance?
Q: Money for upkeep and incidentals
Trainee: Where do you come from?
Q: Malawi.
Trainee: I see. Here, we don’t believe in receiving allowances or money for incidentals anymore. Each participant you see here has come on his or her own. We believe that’s our contribution to the training. Everybody in this workshop understands the value of the course. We need information and knowledge, which lead to attainment of lifelong kills, which, in turn, lead to empowerment. Therefore, it makes no sense to expect to be paid for being taught such skills. I walk approximately 30 kilometres every day to come and attend this course.
Q: Strange. Very strange. In Malawi, no such course can take place without
the trainees being paid, accommodated, fed and transported.
Trainee: I guess Malawians need to change. We, in Rwanda, have changed.
At Rurenge we visited a soya and maize farming cooperative society. We were welcomed by a group of people who looked poor, at least from their dressing and their blank faces. The chairperson, a brown, tall and slender man, briefed us on the history of the Cooperative Society and its successes. He took us around the place for us to appreciate what he was talking about.
“You mean, you built this shed on your own?” We asked, rather puzzled.
“Oui et non. Yes, because it was our idea that we needed to construct an agricultural produce processing and storage shed. Our agricultural extension advisors did the plans and told us we needed 15 million Rwanda francs…”
“You raised 15 million? That’s a lot of money for a poor community like this!”
“No because we did not raise all the money. We contributed RwF5 million and we asked an International NGO to assist us with the rest!” the cooperative society chairperson explained, adding, “We were determined. Unity is money. An individual can be poor but the community, every community, is rich.”
“And the NGO gave you the money or it built the infrastructure?”
“It gave us the money. Cash. NGOs know we are partners in development. They need us as much as we need them. And so, we built this shed! Our next goal is to buy farm machinery to ease production.”
“You baffle me. You mean, poor as you are, you managed to raise K5 million?”
“Not Kwacha; Rwanda francs! Ma Franga.”
“You see. It took us time to understand that in the absence of war and natural calamities like floods, poverty is self-inflicted. Here, we are farmers and the government introduced the one dairy cow per poor family project to boost our incomes. We are now self-reliant. I hear the government learned this project from Malawi.”
“A cow per family works?”
“Here, on average a milk farmer sells about RwF10 000 worth of milk per day and makes around RwF300 000 a month. Now if 20 such people come together as a Milk Cooperative Society, they will have a capital base of RwF 60 million per month or RwF 720 million per year. Which organization or bank can refuse to partner such a group?”
“But farmers need to eat!”
“Farmers already have food. All they need are things like clothing, relish, sugar, and soap. So, no sensible farmer can spend all the RwF10,000 per day!” The chairperson said, laughingly.
“How I wish the fishermen of Malawi understood this! They make more than K10 000 from fish sales (K300 000 per month). If they formed a Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisation (Sacco) and deposited just half of that money, they still would not call themselves poor!”
