Comsip co-op leaders told to be transparent and accountable
Leaders of various cooperatives under Community Savings and Investment Promotion (Comsip) union limited have been urged to be aggressive and accountable in the management of their groups.
Comsip Operations Manager, Suzan Khondowe made the appeal Friday in Lilongwe during a day-long governance training which had attracted over 300 cooperative leaders across the country.
She said it was important for leaders to involve people in their undertakings, be open and show keen interest in the management of their finances.
Khondowe said through the training, many cooperatives would be strengthened, stand united and excellently execute their works and in so doing achieve their goals.
“We normally offer various training such as marketing, production, financial literacy and business management. However the issue of governance was not tackled. Realizing this gap and the need to progress, we thought we should organize this training and impart the leadership of our cooperatives with new knowledge and skills on how they can potentially manage the groups,” she pointed.
Comsip Board Chairperson, Caanan Gondwe said many leaders of Comsip cooperatives were leading the movement with partial knowledge.
He said this created some challenges particularly because leaders did not know the importance of being transparent, accountable and tolerant to their members.
“Leaders must have a strategic vision, be business oriented, responsible and have the skill to solve problems when they arise. This is what we lacked and it is my hope that the training will iron out all the misunderstandings that were there,” Gondwe said.
He appealed to the union leadership to organize as much training as possible with the idea of enriching members with the necessary skills and knowledge.
Participants to the training were drawn from all the regions of the country.
Chairperson of Mthawira Comsip cooperative in Blantyre, Iress Malaga hailed the union body for organizing the training which she said was crucial in as far as management and sustainability of cooperatives in the country was concerned.
“We have been trained on a number of issues but the crucial of all is how as leaders we can lead the cooperatives to greater height and also ensure that each and every member benefits from whatever is happening within the group,” she explained.
Community Savings and Investment Promotion (COMSIP) is a mother body of various cooperatives in the country.
Among others, Comsip encourages the formation of cooperatives among farmers and empower them with various skills such as village savings, small scale businesses as well as nutrition and health.
Meanwhile, the union has over 140 members with a capital share of about K 41.9 Million.
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