AMCOS cooperative payments in Tanzania

What AMCOS are and who regulates them

The Act sets a three-level structure: primary societies at the grassroots, secondary societies in the middle and a federation at the top (section 19(1)) ¹. Primary societies must belong to a secondary society or a federation (section 19(3)) ¹. Agricultural cooperatives are one of the registrable types in section 27 ¹.

Section 6 sets up the Tanzania Cooperative Development Commission as an independent government department. Its functions under section 8 include registering, inspecting and supervising societies and resolving disputes ¹. The Registrar, appointed by the President, is the Commission's chief executive (section 10) ¹.

How produce is delivered and sold

• A society that markets produce must state in its by-laws that members have an implied contract to deliver produce to or through it (section 60(1)(a)) ¹.
• That contract gives the society a first charge over the produce (section 60(2)) ¹.
• At the AMCOS, cashew is received, dried, checked for quality and stored, as CBT described in Dihimba in October 2026 ⁴.
• Receipted crops are sold on the Tanzania Mercantile Exchange. After the buyer's bank payment is confirmed, the seller is paid ⁷.
• Advances against marketed produce may not exceed 75 percent of its estimated local value (section 72(6)) ¹.

Payment rules

The Warehouse Receipts Regulations, 2016 require all payments to go through a financial institution (regulation 32(2)) and require depositors to give buyers their account details (regulation 33) ². Supervision committees must see that depositors are paid according to the quality and quantity sold (regulation 11) ².

Under the Cooperative Societies Act, no dividend or bonus may be paid until the balance sheet is audited and approved by the general meeting (section 77(1)) ¹. A society may set off a member's debts against shares, deposits, dividends or bonuses (section 62) ¹. The Act text read for this guide has no rule that member payments must go through banks ¹.

Audit and oversight

Accounts of non-bank societies must be audited at least once a year by COASCO or by a registered auditor approved by the Registrar (section 55(3)) ¹. Audited accounts go to the general meeting within four months after the period ends, with a copy to the Registrar ¹. Where the government has given financial help, the Minister may ask for an audit by the Controller and Auditor General (section 55(12)) ¹.

The Cooperative Development Commission ran training for AMCOS leaders in Masasi on 3 and 4 October 2026 with the Cashew Board, the Tanzania Federation of Cooperatives, COASCO, the Weights and Measures Agency and TBS. It covered produce handling, weighing and quality ³.

Payment delays and policy changes

In September 2024, a new cashew payment system was announced that would cut AMCOS out of the payment chain, which had caused delays, as reported by Louis Kolumbia of The Citizen. The visible article text did not say how farmers would be paid ⁶.

On 5 September 2026, the Cashew Board said some processors used influence over AMCOS leaders to get cashew through informal deals, which can delay farmers' payments. It said buyers must pay for cashew and levies before collecting it ⁵.