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<\/a><\/p>\n30 December 2011<\/p>\n
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Fluctuating yearly grants to Umwalimu Sacco, a teachers’ credit and savings cooperative, is hindering its effective operation, a top Umwalimu-Sacco official has told The New Times.<\/p>\n
The head of the cooperatives board of governors, Jean Marie Vianney Nzagahimana, revealed that it constituted a planning challenge.<\/p>\n
“We want to give more teachers loans, but we can not determine how many will receive loans because we are not sure just how money will enter our coffers,” Nzagahimana said.<\/p>\n
He was addressing the media shortly after he emerged from a closed door meeting with the Minister of Education, Dr Vincent Biruta.<\/p>\n
“We have asked the Minister to initiate a process to have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will define and stipulate what the cooperative will plan for,” he said.<\/p>\n
Umwalimu-Sacco has so far attracted more than 57,000 teachers.<\/p>\n
The minister said he will put a lot of emphasis in promoting the cooperative in order to improve teachers’ livelihoods.<\/p>\n
“The Government is committed to improving lives of all teachers and everything possible will be done in making sure this cooperative achieves its mission,” he said.<\/p>\n
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