Minsa Kabanda, Uganda’s Minister for Kampala Capital City and Metropolitan Affairs, has urged the country’s business community to support efforts by the government to encourage private market investments in urban regions.
According to Kabanda, this effort is an impact investment, which is a movement that is reinvesting and rethinking the development of capital markets for the purpose of boosting employment and broadening the tax base.
During the commissioning of Westside Market Ntinda, a private market built by Douglas Rukaari Kajinja, owner and chairman of Westside Group in Kampala, at Kinawataka – Mutoola zone, Bukoto II parish, Nakawa division, on Thursday (August 31, 2023) Kabanda made the comment.
The Westside Market contains 100 market booths, a warehouse, supermarkets, butchers, a parking lot, a washing bay, two-stance restrooms, and administrative offices, like many other markets.
This is the first model market that was carefully constructed by our local investor to promote the Smart City idea in Kampala and assist in relocating stalled street sellers and hawkers who wish to start large companies.
We are pleading with Ugandans to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the government’s liberalization of the economy by setting up businesses, factories, and conventional marketplaces to create more jobs for our people, particularly for street sellers and hawkers.
This is the first model market that was carefully constructed by our local investor to promote the Smart City idea in Kampala and assist in relocating stalled street sellers and hawkers who wish to start large companies.
We are pleading with Ugandans to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the government’s liberalization of the economy by setting up businesses, factories, and conventional marketplaces to create more jobs for our people, particularly for street sellers and hawkers.
According to the Markets Act of 2023’s Article 6(i), anyone wishing to launch a private market must get authorisation from the local authorities whose purview the market is to be formed.
The speaker of the Nakawa division, Godfrey Ruyombya, hailed the development of a distinctive market that will serve hawkers, street sellers, and a corporate class of persons eager to conduct business in warehouses, retail centers, and supermarkets.
A government market in the Nakawa division is home to around 25,000 active vendors.
A requirements analysis, comprehensive drawings, and bid documents for an extra 18 markets to be built in 18 urban councils in Uganda were prepared by the Ministry of Local Government (MOLG).
The bulk of Uganda’s youth and women, who make up the majority of the population, are employed in markets, which represent a significant component of the economy.
The Parish Development Model (PDM) to assist vendors.
In order to eradicate poverty in Uganda, Kabanda asked all sellers to make use of PDM and Emyooga funding to raise finance for investment in these recently built marketplaces.
10,594 PDM Savings and Credit Cooperative Organizations (SACCOs) have been established as of this writing, according to Kabanda.
“For the fiscal year 2022-2023, the government gave each of the 10,570 PDM SACCOs Sh50 million. Each of the 10,594 parish SACCOs will have received Sh100 million by the conclusion of this fiscal year, he revealed.
