Improved cooperative entrepreneurship in order to get access to finance

RUCU is a registered union under the cooperatives Act NO.20 of 2003 with registration number 5513, registered in 1995. The union is based in Rungwe district in the southern highlands of Tanzania, approximately 50Kms away from the Malawian border. The union offices are based at Tukuyu shopping centre and housed in their own building. Historically the union was formed in 1949 as Rungwe African Union (RAU) when Africans were advised by the colonial government of the day to form their own cooperative to handle their produce. At that time the cooperative was handling products from four value chains; coffee, maize, beans and rice. Due to the perceived advantages of economies of scale, the government advised RAU to merge with other unions in the whole Mbeya province to form Mbeya cooperative union (MBECU). Since RAU was a major stakeholder of the new outfit they were given the general manager's position. Rungwe on its part just became a branch. More value chains were thus added into the products lists handled by the union. Just like in other parts of the developing world, in 1984, politics set into the cooperative movement. This let to the disintegration of MBECU and formation of Kyela Rungwe cooperative union (KYERUCU). This union lasted for close to 10 years before there was a split in 1995 to form Kyela cooperative union (KYECU) and Rungwe cooperative union (RUCU). RUCU is led by a board of 6 elected board members who can vote during the meetings. However, during sittings, the general manager, the accountant and the district cooperative officer (DCO) joins into the meeting to support the board on advises. The union also currently has an active membership of 20 Agricultural marketing cooperative societies (AMCOS) who in turn boast of a total active membership of about 2000 individual members currently delivering their coffee to the AMCOS who then later deliver them to the union.