Enhancing Co-Operative Records Management with Web-Mobile Solutions: Evidence from Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania
George Sizya Germinous1*, Mwapashua Hamis Fujo2 and Mussa Ally Dida1
1School of Computational & Communication Science and Engineering (CoCSE) Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST)
2Department of Information and Communication Technology, Moshi Co-operative University (MoCU)
*Corresponding Author: George Sizya Germinous, School of Computational & Communication Science and Engineering (CoCSE) Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST), P.O.BOX 447, Arusha, Tanzania.
Published: August 16, 2024
Abstract
Co-operatives have proved to be one of the driving forces in the socio-economic empowerment of its members. The Government of Tanzania has been implementing the Poverty Reduction Strategy by encouraging people to form co-operatives in order to improve their economic prospects. Establishing a primary co-operative society involves a process which passes through district co-operative office, regional co-operative office and the registrar of co-operatives’ office at the national level. These processes bring about the issue of documentation and records keeping. The processing of records is done manually by using pen and papers, or electronically using computers, smart phones and cameras. The research work essentially used questionnaire, interview, observation and document review to gather data. Findings of this study show that 8 out of 13 respondents (61.5%) responded to physically visit co-operative offices to acquire existing records about co-operative societies. This vividly explains use of manual procedure for co-operative records management thus leading to unsolved challenges such as; data inaccuracy and inconsistency, bureaucracy during physical access, money and time consumption due to geographical challenges, lack of transparence, and improper presentation of co-operative information in request. This ongoing research work proposes a web-mobile approach named Co-operative Records Management System (CRMS). CRMS will offer a solution which enable District Co-operative officers (DCOs) to record, process and generate electronic reports on co-operative societies’ records thus mitigating challenges about, but not limited to; time wastage, inconsistency in recording financial records as well as reducing costs for data acquisition. Therefore, this paper explores methods to enhance co-operative records management through web-mobile solutions, as evidenced in the Kilimanjaro region, and presents a proposed design solution.
Keywords: Information Systems; Co-operative society; Information management; Record keeping; CRMS; Co-operative management
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