Arua women start work on Shs4b silver fish store
Ongoing construction works on the silver fish store in Arua City. The women traders have called for government support to complete the Shs4 billion structure. PHOTO | CLEMENT ALUMA
What you need to know:
- Arua City Mayor, Mr Sam Wadri Nyakua, said though they do not have a budget to support the silver fish traders, he will link them with organisations that support women.
What appeared as a dream is slowly coming to reality. Arua Silver Fish Traders are building their own silver fish store worth Shs4b in order to bolster their business.
The traders have for several years lost their silver fish to rats, contamination, theft and bad weather due to lack of proper storage facilities.
As a result, the silver fish traders started raising money to construct a store.
Speaking to this publication at the weekend, Ms Zenna Ocokoru, 65, the chairperson of the group named Arua Women Business Enterprise, said they have so far raised Shs200m to begin the construction.
“Even if we don’t finish it, we shall leave it to our children because each individual has the next of kin in the agreement. We could not just look on when we are all surrounded by new and magnificent buildings,” she said.
However, the money at hand is getting exhausted and the group is appealing to the government for assistance.
“Since the government is always interested in organised women groups like ours, we want it to help us. We have gone to banks and relevant authorities and all have not come to our rescue,” Ms Ocokoru said.
She explained that the store will enable them to increase food quality, safety, accessibility and nutritional value.
The Arua City Mayor, Mr Sam Wadri Nyakua, said though they do not have a budget to support the silver fish traders, he will link them with organisations that support women.
“They are a very organised and enterprising group, which needs our support. We shall link them up because they contribute a lot of local revenue for the city council,” Mr Nyakua stated.
Each of the 23 shareholders is supposed to contribute Shs11m towards the construction over a five-year period.
There are about 400 silver fish traders within Arua City.
Silver fish has remained a lucrative business in Arua where there is high demand from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan.
Several businessmen from the two countries flock to Arua City on a weekly basis to buy the silver fish.
