Abstract:
This paper was first presented during the Annual Symposium of the Cooperative College Moshi, that
was held from 9th August to 13th August, 1993 at the Main campus. As can be noted from the title
the paper was written and presented at the time when many changes, nationally and world wide are
taking place in the public and the cooperative (private) sectors. Nationally, the state is trying to
overcome major constraints in economic and financial matters through the involvement of the private
sector. Internationally, aid is either dwindling or being withdrawn. And the cooperative sector, faces
more challenges hitherto unknown as they disengage themselves from state controls and (directives
giving them unquestionable monopoly in certain key areas like bank loans acquisition, crop purchases,
input etc. This paper is meant to implicitly show how cooperatives can competitively operate in the
current unstable environment; by highlighting some transparent problematic areas which need to be
addressed
