Consumer Co-operatives in Tanzania

Abstract

Consumer co-operatives became popular in Tanzania soon after independence from Britain in the early 1960s. Their establishment was result of government initiatives to meet a growing demand for consumer goods which originally were imported from Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. A growing urban demand was based on the growing African civil servants. But the growing agricultural co-operative movement also provided another demand for the institutionalisation of consumer co-operatives as part of a growing cooperative movement in Tanzania. The origins of the consumer co-operative movement were supported by the Nordic countries through the Nordic Project for Co-operative Development in Tanzania. However, the political decision to enhance Ujamaa and Socialism policies in Tanzania sect in contradictions with traditional co-operative principles and the Nordic experience and expertise. The tension with original support, the failure of import substitution industrialisation and the involvement of Tanzania in the Uganda conflict and liberalisation dealt a second blow to the development of consumer co-operatives in Tanzania to a declining trend. Finaly, Tanzania still needs the consumer co-operative enterprise but in a more transformed order where policy and legal reforms are required as well as putting advanced methods of management and capitalisation.