By Asa Maina
Nyeri County government will train all cooperative society officials to enhance prudent management in the sector.
Last year, the County, the department of cooperative development trained over 800 offficers but Governor Mutahi Kahiga now says the training will be done annually.
The 800 board members drawn from all cooperatives were trained last year at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT) in Nyeri.
“We shall be getting all the board members from coffee, milk cooperatives and Saccos among others and train them so that their management and governance skills are enhanced,” he said.
The three-day training and capacity building workshops mostly focus on financial management and governance.
The training helps the cooperatives’ leadership to acquire knowledge on how to effectively manage the day to day running of the Societies.
It is also meant to strengthen the management and running of cooperative societies within the County and ensure value for money while eliminating existing conflicts and fall outs that negatively affect the entities.
After the training, the department of Cooperatives Development will closely monitor the cooperatives and deal with all those who will not be running their cooperatives in the right way.
Kahiga said cooperatives must be run in the right way and put on notice those using cooperatives to enrich themselves.
Farmers who deliver their farm produce in various Societies must also be paid for the produce delivered.
Kahiga said there have been cases where farmers deliver their produce such as coffee in the respective societies only to get negative rates at the end of the year.
“How can farmers take their coffee to a factory and instead of getting money they get negative coffee payment rates?” posed Kahiga.
He directed the CEC for Cooperatives to be vigilant and ensure that cooperatives are run professionally.
