How we look after your information.

Who we are

Lusaka Avocado Multipurpose Cooperative Society ("the cooperative") is a member-owned cooperative registered in Zambia under the Co-operative Societies Act No. 20 of 1998. The cooperative is the data controller for the information described here.

Contact: Plot 50a/74, Katutwa Street, Makeni Balmoral, Lusaka, Zambia · lusakaavocadoreg@gmail.com · 0966 783 385 / 0974 974 354

What we collect

• Membership details — your name, member number, NRC/ID number, phone number, email address, and address or farm location.
• Financial records — your registration fee, annual subscriptions, share purchases and share certificates, and the payments you make to the cooperative.
• Mobile money details — the phone number used to pay and the payment reference. We never see or store your PIN.
• Produce records — the deliveries you make, their grade, weight and value.
• Portal account — your password (stored only as a one-way encrypted hash, never in readable form) and the time you last signed in.

Why we hold it, and on what basis

• To administer your membership — this is necessary to perform the membership agreement between you and the cooperative.
• To meet our legal obligations — the Co-operative Societies Act requires the cooperative to keep a register of members, records of shares, and proper books of account.
• To market your produce and pay you for it.
• To communicate with you about your account, meetings (including the AGM) and cooperative business.

Who we share it with

We do not sell your information or share it for marketing. We share only what is necessary with:

• Our payment provider — when you pay by mobile money, your phone number and the amount are shared with the payment gateway to process the payment.
• Our regulator and auditors — where required by the Co-operative Societies Act or by law.
• Our technology provider — Ontech Solutions Limited maintains this platform on the cooperative's behalf, under instruction.
• Our chat service — the public pages of this website carry a chat widget operated by Ontech Solutions Limited (engage.ontech.co.zm). Anything you type into that chat is sent to it. It runs on the public pages only — it is not present on the member portal or on any staff screen, so it cannot see your membership, share or payment records. Please do not type your NRC, passwords or payment details into it.

How long we keep it

Membership, share and financial records are kept for as long as you are a member and afterwards for as long as the Co-operative Societies Act and our auditors require. If you leave the cooperative, your financial records must still be retained for statutory and audit purposes, but we will stop using your details to contact you.

Your rights

Under the Data Protection Act No. 3 of 2021 you may:

• ask what information we hold about you and get a copy of it;
• ask us to correct anything that is wrong — you can also update your own contact details in the member portal;
• ask us to delete information we no longer have a lawful reason to keep;
• object to how we use your information, or complain to the Data Protection Commissioner.

To exercise any of these, contact the cooperative office at lusakaavocadoreg@gmail.com or 0966 783 385 / 0974 974 354.

How we protect it

This site is encrypted with HTTPS. Passwords are stored using one-way hashing and can never be read back, by us or anyone else. Access to member records is limited to authorised cooperative staff, and sessions time out after a period of inactivity. Records are backed up regularly so they are not lost.