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Cameroon: Mbah Christopher Mongwe - 'Liberation Did Not Help Cooperative Sector'
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Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
INTERVIEW
24 July 2008
Posted to the web 24 July 2008
Reginal LIENGU ETAKA& Pamela K. MIYE
Mbah Christopher Mongwe, General Manager of the NWCA says sometimes, the wrong people are at the helm of cooperative societies and unions.
Can you size up the situation of Cooperative Societies in the North West now?
The cooperative movement is at its lowest level now. Perhaps I should say that cooperatives west of the Mungo were created and thought principles and practices of cooperatives as collective property while in other parts of the country they were created in anticipation that the government will provide funding. They thus emerged with tendencies as groupings to lobby for funds and assistance and it is regrettable that such a mentality is moving to cooperatives west of the Mungo. Liberalisation of the Sector did not help matters and that is why from about 11.000 tons that we used to assemble, we handle barely 1000 tons now.
Has the role of the NWCA changed in the face of such challenges?
The objectives and mission of the North West Cooperative Association have not changed. It remains the mouth piece of farmers and sources for funding for them because commercial banks can only talk with the apex body which is the NWCA. North West Coffee and Cocoa farmers assembled in Cooperatives continue to be educated and trained by the NWCA. We have spread coffee mills all over the province with teams to ensure that they are functioning. We train and coordinate experts to promote the production of coffee and the NWCA has a mandate to take projects from Cooperative Unions abroad.
What is required for the cooperative movement to inspire greater attraction?
There is a big need for financing cooperatives because they are small holders that lack money. The government needs to offer a hand with education and training opportunities. There is also the need to make agricultural inputs accessible and cheap. Fertilizers are too expensive and affordable only for a few privileged farmers. As a step further I would say that today's Cooperative College in Bamenda is a spent force. The college graduates doubtful products in the sector. I mean that most of the graduates are inefficient because their teachers themselves don't master the Cooperative movement. Very few teachers know the principles of the Cooperative movement which sharply contrasts with the past when teachers of the Bamenda Cooperative College grew within the Cooperative environment.
Today, they are all Agric. engineers with little knowledge about the Cooperative movement. We also deplore a situation where those who manage Cooperative Societies and Unions today bought their way to the helm and once there, all they do is how to recover their money. They hardly represent the interest of farmers. That is why it is not strange to have the President of a Cooperative Union who lacks a coffee farm of his making.
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I think the government has realised that since it abandoned support for the Cooperative Movement, the coffee and Cocoa sector has collapsed giving chance to the multiplication of C.I.Gs. We now have about 3,000 C.I.Gs in the North West doing very little yet receiving funding.
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