Abstract
This research analyzed "Project design and implementation of cooperative management system (CMS) software and its impact on the efficiency and productivity of cooperatives in Rwanda" on 146 cooperatives using Cooperative Management System (CMS) across 19 districts of 4 Provinces of Rwanda (Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern). The study used a sample of 750 respondents including 730 cooperative members from a total population of 61,320 members of 146 cooperatives plus 19 District Cooperatives Officers and 1 Director of Cooperatives Promotion and Capacity Building Unit in Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA). A questionnaire designed in form of five levels Likert scale was used and data was collected and analyzed through KoBo Toolbox and SPSS. The results of the research indicated that CMS has an impact on productivity and efficiency of cooperatives (x?= 4.7; ? =.220). CMS Membership management module impacts on productivity and efficiency of cooperatives through accurate data about the members that promotes effective planning (x?= 4.9; ? =.200); CMS Payments management module impacts on productivity and efficiency of cooperatives through promoting stakeholders' satisfaction (x?= 4.6; ? =.200); CMS Accounting module impacts on productivity and efficiency of cooperatives through updated, easy and quick financial reporting (x?= 4.7; ? =.190); CMS Human resource management module impacts on productivity and efficiency of cooperatives through employee motivation and satisfaction (x?= 4.8; ? =.200); CMS Credit management module impacts on productivity and efficiency of cooperatives through accurate and updated information about the debt owed and timely payment (x?= 4.5; ? =.300). The main CMS challenges are the following: CMS is not free. It requires additional contribution of members to cover the cost of its installation and maintenance (x?= 5.0; ? =.000); CMS requires the cooperatives to have among members those with advanced education level yet there are pure rural cooperatives where none have attended secondary school (x?= 4.3; ? =.080); CMS has issue of confidentiality of the data: the data of the cooperatives are managed by the government which hosts the CMS system (x?= 5.0; ? =.000); CMS use requires internet which incurs additional operational cost (x?= 4.1; ? =.351); Most of cooperatives managers prefer the ordinal routine of cooperative management due to low level of understanding and flexibility to change their routine services for adopting CMS (x?= 5.0; ? =.000). Corresponding solutions proposed by the respondents are the following: Support of the RCA on installation cost and the cooperatives should cover maintenance costs (x?= 4.8; ? =.070); More training on even members with good primary education on the use of CMS (x?= 4.3; ? =.380); Confederations should play important role in the management of CMS and the role of the government should be reduced with the time (x?= 4.9; ? =.290); The government should reduce the cost of internet to be affordable for all including cooperatives using CMS system (x?= 4.7; ? =.151); More capacity building is required for cooperative managers to open their mind on the use of ICT foe the development. Also the experience of successful cooperatives in the use of CMS should be shared among cooperatives (x?= 4.6; ? =.400).
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Globally, (International Cooperative Alliance, 2014) defines a cooperative as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise. The members of cooperatives can be natural persons or corporate bodies. They are an alternative to the capitalist approach of most businesses: a type of economic-social cooperation. As a result, the cooperative, which aims to apply the social well-being of the work world to a business level, is a non-profit-making service enterprise whose objective is to free its members from any exploitation they are suffering by strengthening them in their economic role as purchasers, workers, produce sellers, borrowers, housing applicants, tenants, etc (International Cooperative Alliance, 2014). According to (Henry, H., 2021) cooperatives are based on the values of self help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, cooperative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others. The cooperative principles are guidelines by which cooperatives put their values into practice. These principles are the following: Cooperatives are voluntary organisations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political or religious discrimination. Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional and international structures. Cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members (Henry, H., 2021). According to (European Parliamentary Research Service, 2019), there are 3 million cooperatives worldwide; together, they provide employment for 280 million people, equating to 10% of the world's employed population. The 300 largest cooperatives and mutuals in the world had a total turnover of US$2.018 trillion in 2016. In the EU there are some 131,000 cooperatives, with more than 4.3 million employees and an annual turnover of €992 billion.
For Africa, the cooperatives have played important role in the development of African countries. (Wanyama, F. O., 2019) indicated that promotion of these organizations to champion development has seen the history of cooperative development in independent Africa generally phased into two eras: the first era running from the immediate post-colonial period in the 1960’s to the mid-1990s and the second era occurring during the global economic reforms from the mid 1990’s to the present, which has been characterized liberalization of the economy. Whereas the first era was characterized by stringent government control over cooperative development through enactment of policies, legislation and programmes that promoted cooperatives as vehicles for accelerating national economic development, the second era has been the sphere of freeing cooperatives from the state to enjoy autonomy and operate like business ventures responding to market demands (Wanyama, F. O., 2019).
In Rwanda, (Mukarugwiza, S., 2010) showed that like in most African countries, cooperatives were first introduced in Rwanda by the Belgians in the colonial period as instruments for driving the agenda of the government’s socio-economic goals. Due to the paternalistic approach of the colonial administration that sought to keep Africans in underprivileged positions, cooperatives were not considered to be attractive to Africans, as they restricted their activities to the social and agricultural sectors. Even in the agricultural sector, African cooperatives were strictly controlled by the colonial administration to the point of fixing the prices that cooperatives could pay their members for their produce, which was lower than what private European entrepreneurs paid (Wanyama, F., Develtere, P. and Pollet, I. , 2009).
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