RUTANA January 4th (ABP) – The director general of the national fund for communal investment (FONIC), Mr. Innocent Habarugira, said in Rutana on Thursday January 2, 2020 that the funds that the State has granted to the country’s village cooperatives are not a donation but an interest-free loan that those cooperatives must pay off.

Mr. Habarugira said so during a regional workshop for reflection and exchange on monitoring the implementation of village cooperative projects.

He underlined that those funds amounting to 10 million BIF for each village cooperative were granted with the aim of helping those organizations to develop and sustain production.

This workshop was organized for executives of the provincial offices of the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, communal administrators, communal engineers, and representatives of Sangwe cooperatives. Its purpose was to have the same vision on the role of each stakeholder in order to fully achieve the objectives without difficulty.

According to the director general of FONIC, the role of the Ministry of the Interior through its general management is to ensure coordination, advice, monitoring and evaluation of all technical aspects.

As for the Ministry of Finance, it has the role of ensuring the granting of funds and the commune has the role of guarantor while the cooperatives have the obligation to manage the projects and to repay the loan within an agreed period.