Mbarara market vendors await next course of action after ultimatum to occupy lockups ends
MBARARA– Vendors who have not yet occupied lockups in the new Mbarara Central Market are waiting to see the next course of action business leaders will take after an ultimatum issued by Mbarara City Traders Association [MBACITA] on January 19, 2023, elapsed on February 20, 2023, without some of the vendors opening the lockups.
In a letter also addressed to the city town clerk on January 19, 2023, Simon Mwijukye Ssezi, MBACITA chairman said he was concerned about 185 kiosks on level four of the market structure remaining unutilised for the last eight months even when the market facilities were allocated to vendors.
“Since June 2022, these kiosks have been closed and as a leader of the business community, I cannot sit down and watch when the government facility is not utilised,” Mwijukye explained while giving the ultimatum to the vendors’
Mwijukye In a letter added that, “For MBACITA this is an indicator that the said kiosks were allocated to people who are not vendors or may have been taken by people who are not ready to work in the market.”
He added that the unoccupied lockups can be alternatives for vendors who are operating from the streets of Mbarara.
“Before we start chasing vendors from the streets, these lockups should be a direct alternative for them but if we don’t act then it means the kiosks will remain closed for years.”
Now that the ultimatum has expired today, Mwijukye confirmed that the unoccupied lockups will be re-advertised to enable people who want to trade from the central market to take them up.
Emmanuel Muhumuza, chairman Mbarara Central Market Association named fish farmers in the region as the absentee landlords still struggling to get facilities to use.
“We allocated them space on level 4 in October 2022 and since then none of those vendors has ever shown up.”
We’ve been patient enough and this is the last time we are telling people to report and start doing business because we want to make this market very vibrant, he adds.
When asked, Deus Tumusiime, chairman of the aquaculture cooperative union said that as fish farmers they are still hustling to get machines to keep the standard of fish before they comply.
“We need deep freezers which will cost us about Shs 7 million and they are the ones delaying us but we are trying very hard and before the end of this month we should have started”. Tumusiime said
Mbarara city town clerk Assy Abirebe explained that the failure of vendors to occupy the market has attracted criminals that hide in unoccupied lockups to steal and vandalise some facilities in the market.
“For those who have failed to take on their lockups, should do it immediately so that we can minimise the risk of crime in the market especially thugs would want to go and hide there and do criminal acts,” said Abirebe
Mbarara Central Market was recently redeveloped by the government under the Markets and Agriculture Trade Improvement Project [MATIP]. It was constructed at a sum of 21 bln, which is a loan that was sourced from the African Development Bank [ADB] meant to alleviate poverty and improve agricultural trade.
It accommodates 1,095 vendors and has facilities like food court, daycare, restaurant, fowl cages, stalls, lockups among others.
https://thecooperator.news/mbarara-central-market-city-authorities-feud-over-revenue-collections/
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