MOSHI: As cooperative business models gain renewed global attention as tools for inclusive growth and economic resilience, Tanzania has brought one of the sector’s key legal gatherings to Africa for the first time, signalling the continent’s growing voice in shaping international regulatory debate.
The fifth International Forum on Cooperative Law was held in Moshi, northern Tanzania, hosted by Moshi Cooperative University (MoCU). The event marked the first time the forum has convened on African soil, a shift organisers described as both symbolic and strategically significant.
“We are particularly delighted and deeply honoured that, for the very first time in history, the International Forum on Cooperative Law is being organised in Africa, specifically in Tanzania, and is being hosted by Moshi Cooperative University through its Department of Law,” said Elias Mwigamba, acting head of the department, addressing delegates.
He described the milestone as historic, underscoring Africa’s expanding role in shaping global cooperative law and policy discourse at a time when member-owned enterprises are increasingly seen as viable alternatives to purely profit-driven corporate models.
Cooperatives are central to many African economies, particularly in agriculture, microfinance and community-based enterprise. Yet legal frameworks governing them remain uneven across jurisdictions. By hosting the forum, Tanzania positioned itself within a broader international conversation about harmonising regulation, strengthening governance and ensuring cooperatives remain accountable and competitive in a globalised economy.
MoCU introduced its Bachelor of Laws (LLB) programme in the 2012/13 academic year with just 45 students. Over the past decade, the department has expanded to enrol around 800 students across its LLB and one-year Certificate in Law programmes — growth that Mwigamba said reflects rising demand for specialised legal expertise within the cooperative sector.
Kiswahili’s global rise in focus as Zanzibar hosts regional language milestone
“From these humble beginnings, the department has grown significantly,” he noted, attributing the expansion to both market demand and confidence in the department’s academic and professional standards.
Opening the conference as guest of honour, the vice-chancellor, Prof Alfred Siffe, said sustained government investment in infrastructure and higher education has strengthened the university’s contribution to development at national and international levels.
“The government’s contribution has helped to improve MoCU through significant investments in educational infrastructure,” he said. “This has enabled us to produce competent graduates who enter the job market and participate in development activities inside and outside the country.”
To maintain its standing as a centre of excellence in cooperative education in Africa, Siffe said the university has introduced programmes aimed at enhancing technological capacity and modernising academic delivery. Additional strategies focus on financial sustainability, strategic policy development, infrastructure upgrades and strengthening research and innovation.
These efforts, he argued, are designed to align higher education more closely with economic and social priorities, ensuring that legal scholarship translates into practical improvements in cooperative governance.
Siffe added that the presence of a fully-fledged Department of Law within the Faculty of Business and Information Sciences made MoCU a natural host for the forum, providing a rigorous academic framework for high-level legal discussion.
As cooperative enterprises worldwide face new pressures, from regulatory reform to digital transformation, Tanzania’s hosting of the forum reflects a broader shift: Africa is no longer merely implementing cooperative models shaped elsewhere, but increasingly contributing to the legal thinking that defines them.
