The new rules are expected to improve strict financial management among Moto taxi cooperatives
Effective Wednesday, several Moto taxi cooperatives will start operating under new rules which are likely to prevent misappropriation of funds.
The Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA) has changed the outdated instructions on moto taxi cooperatives management and replaced them with new directives that eliminate administrative loopholes.
This comes as a relief for cooperative members who always complained about management style that allows cooperative leaders to steal from their contributions, causing constant conflicts.
There are more than 200 Moto taxi cooperatives across the country comprised of 19,000 cooperative members.
Persistent disagreements between members and their representatives had been difficult to settle by RCA instructions of 2005 even when contributions of cooperatives’ to the country’s economy were worth $ 1 Million in 2015.
“The Moto transport has grown tremendously in number and earnings. It is important to introduce new instructions to address management crises that we always witnessed,” an official at RCA who did not want to be named because he does not speak for the institution told KT Press.
He said that last year, about 400 Moto taxi operators in Cooperative des taxi Moto de Rusizi (Comoru) complained before RCA against their representatives that had been swindling their contributions since 2012.
They failed to service a loan worth Rwf142 million from GT-Bank and led to the auctioning of their 5-floor commercial building in Rusizi town.
Damien Mugabo, then Director General of Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA) told KTPress the mess was attributed to mismanagement also affecting several cooperatives.
Currently, through several interventions, the Moto taxi operators managed to secure a deal with Development Bank of Rwanda (BRD) with the latter accepting to buy the loan, allowing the Moto taxi operators to reimburse at fair pace.
Rusizi district also agreed to support the cooperative.
