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Govt moves to renovate Gulu Main Market as vendors flee
Traders go about their business near Gulu Main Market last year. Many vendors in the facility that was commissioned five years ago have relocated their businesses to the streets because of challenges in the facility. PHOTO/ RACHEL MABALA
What you need to know:
- In March last year, a section of vendors at Masaka Central Market protested the structural designs of stalls at the new market. The vendors claimed the stalls were too small to accommodate their merchandise.
By 4pm, traffic on major streets rounding Gulu Main Market is paralysed. Walkways and roads get jam-packed by vendors and hawkers lined up along these streets to sell their merchandise.
For nearly two years, police and Gulu City authorities, have battled with the vendors to clear them off the streets.
Daily Monitor has established that the facility that accommodates 2,800 traders, experiences frequent power outages.
The natural light in the market only supports business between 8am when the market opens and 4pm. Beyond this time, it becomes dark inside the facility.
Ms Night Aromo, a matooke vendor at the market, says beyond 4pm, customers fear accessing their stalls because the whole market interior gets covered in darkness.
“It has been very unfavourable to us because of the lack of electricity. At least by the roadside, one makes more money in a short time than sitting inside the market the whole day,” Ms Aromo says.
Besides the power challenge, Mr Patrick Omaya, the market vendors’ chairperson, says they were forced to close down the toilet facilities in the market after the water supply was cut off by National Water and Sewerage Corporation.
“You can imagine, water and power are very key but they have been off, although the issue is being rectified,” Mr Omaya says.
To compound the problem, Mr Omaya says the upper section of the market has been rendered inaccessible because of poor designs.
“That is why right now, you see many stalls up there are locked because the owners do not get business, buyers do not have the access,” he adds.
Mr Omaya also appeals to the government to install solar power at the market to curb rampant power outages at the facility.
The former Gulu main market that housed less than 950 vendors, was pulled down in 2014 to establish the current market.
This newspaper has established that it is not only Gulu Main Market experiencing such challenges.
In March last year, a section of vendors at Masaka Central Market protested the structural designs of stalls at the new market. The vendors claimed the stalls were too small to accommodate their merchandise.
A joint venture by Multiplex Ltd and Alshams Construction Company Ltd was contracted to do the work at Shs18.45 billion, with sponsorship from the African Development Bank, and the government of Uganda.
Ms Betty Nakayiza, the chairperson of Masaka Central Market Vendors Association, asked the contractor to make adjustments and ensure all stalls suit the interests of different categories of vendors.
“We are the actual beneficiaries of this market project and we request for reasonable adjustments in the stalls to suit our interests as vendors,” she said during an inspection exercise of the project last week.
Addressing the issues
Last week, Ms Victoria Businge Rusoke, the State Minister for Local Government, was in Gulu to establish the state of Gulu Main Market, which was commissioned by President Museveni in 2016.
Ms Rusoke said a technical report by her ministry indicates that some of the markets that were commissioned by the President now have severe challenges that her ministry has set out to address immediately.
Last week, the Gulu City commercial department said it was seeking Shs3b from the central government to renovate Gulu Main Market, which is currently in a sorry state just five years after it was operationalised.
The market was constructed at a cost of Shs29b under the Market Agricultural Trade Improvement Project (MATIP).
The Gulu City commercial department says it is targeting to refurbish the market floor, build and equip a cold room, improve the lighting systems by installing solar lights, and improving hygiene by working on the drainage system within the market.
But Ms Rusoke said her ministry is now moving to refurbish the market and equip it with missing facilities.
“For example, Gulu Main Market did not get solar lighting systems, which should be running all the lights and kitchen stoves in the market, she said.
“I promise this is going to be done,” Ms Rusoke said.
