Africa-Press – Uganda. The Shs24.6b new Kitgum Central Market remains empty three months after President Museveni commissioned it.
On October 10, President Museveni commissioned the market during Uganda’s 61st Independence Anniversary celebrations held in Kitgum District.
It is one of the market infrastructure developments built under the Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvement Programme-2 (MATIP-2) to improve the economic and social infrastructure in urban markets, induce incremental production and marketing of agricultural commodities, and enhance incomes of vendors, among others.
At the commissioning ceremony, the Local Government Minister, Mr Raphael Magyezi, said the facility is one of the 12 additional markets across the country that have been constructed under MATIP-2.
“The new market of Kitgum has several facilities, including fruit and vegetables stalls, meat lockups, smoked and fresh fish stalls, assorted lockups/shops, saloons, bulk stores, cold rooms, market administration offices and meeting and prayer rooms,” Mr Magyezi said.
The minister also told President Museveni that the market has other support facilities like utility rooms, control rooms, solar systems, CCTV systems, fire extinguishers, banking and SACCO facilities, and parking space, among other amenities.
However, press has learnt that conflict of interest on space allocation has delayed plans to occupy the market by vendors.
Mr Fred Ebil, the Kitgum Resident District Commissioner, told this newspaper at the weekend that a market allocation committee started vetting vendors on Monday last week, and that the market can only be ready for occupation by mid-January next year.
“We began the process of letting vendors occupy the market, and this process is being led by the market allocation committee as stipulated in the Market Act 2020. Their mandate is to designate and give spaces to vendors in the market and that is exactly what has been happening,” he said at the weekend.
Mr Ebil said the delays were to allow consultations with the vendors.
“We have designated January 10, 2024, in consultation with the vendors since the vendors requested that they should be left to sell during the Christmas time from outside and then get inside from that date.”
However, Mr Richard Okwera Ojara, the mayor of Kitgum Municipality, explained that the council took a longer time to let traders into the new market to give them enough time to sort out ghost vendors.
He also stated that the delay stemmed from the confusion that resulted from the overwhelming number of vendors who intended to occupy the new facility.
He said while the new market has space to accommodate only 1,652 vendors, there are more than 3,000 applicants who now want to get space in the new market.
“It is also not possible to accommodate everyone, we have given priority to the 155 sitting tenants (developers), the available vendors in the market and the third category will be the applicants,” Mr Ojara said.
Mr Alfred Ocan, the secretary of Kitgum Main Market Vendors Association, said the allocation of lockups and spaces started very well this month, but a disagreement on how many years the original traders should occupy their spaces kept the process dragging.
Background
In 2019, the government awarded the contract to construct the market to Chinese State Construction Engineering Company Limited (CSCECL) to construct the facility valued at Shs24.6 billion.
The works were to last 24 months, with June 2021 as the commissioning deadline. The untimely delivery of raw materials and the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, stalled the works.
By April 2021, only Block A had achieved more than 50 percent physical progress, while Block B sat at less than 40 percent.
Source: Monitor
For More News And Analysis About Uganda Follow Africa-Press
