New Yumbe market offers hope to traders

Traders in Kei Sub-county, Yumbe District, have reason to smile after the authorities completed the construction of a modern market.
Lobe Market was constructed at a cost of Shs400m by Budo Meta Investments Ltd with funding from United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).

Ms Kalsum Ava, a vendor, said for the last 25 years, they have suffered the effects of operating in an open space. Ms Ava said each time it rained, their merchandise would get soaked because they had no permanent shelters where to keep it.

“We faced a lot of problems from the bad weather in the market. We were disturbed by strong winds that ended up soiling the items displayed for sale,” she said.

Consequently, the district leadership last year embarked on the construction of the market under the Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (DINU) programme, and it was finally handed over to the community last Friday.

Market components
The market has five stalls, a five-stance pit-latrine, an administration block that has an office and a nursery section where breastfeeding mothers can attend to their babies and other children can play.

“We are going to benefit a lot from the market and I appeal to my fellow women to work hard and produce enough food items to boost the market,” Ms Ava said. Ms Maimuna Alu, a vendor, commended DINU for setting up the market.

“The market stalls will provide safety for our commodities as they have lockable drawers and it will cut expenses of carrying the commodities on a daily basis. However, lack of a fence component and power pose a risk for our commodities,” she said.

Mr Abasi Efiku, the market chairperson, asked the traders to own the facility. “Let us not disappoint the funder by vandalising the structures because we may in future ask them to construct more structures that are missing in the market,” he said.

Mr Swali Izule, the village chairperson, said while the contractor did a good work in the construction of the market, they handed it over with debts, which must be cleared. He said the workers claim that the contractor owes them Shs1.4 million.

Mr Rashid Azubu, the contractor, referred the complainants to the sub-county leaders. “We decided to stop the team from work and brought in another one. We told the suspended team with the help of the engineer who recruited them to calculate their bill and they came up with a total bill of Shs3.3m which I brought but they rejected it on grounds that it was not enough,” he said.

WHAT DONOR SAYS
Mr Dimitry Pozhidaev, the UNCDF regional technical adviser, said the market refurbishment was aimed at supporting investments for economic empowerment of women and young people.

“We are glad the district has given consideration to needs of the women vendors to improve their work conditions and we look forward to similar initiatives that promote economic empowerment of women,” he said.