CITY TRADERS STUCK WITH MERCHANDISE AS ECONOMIC HARDSHIP HITS
Submitted by Anonymous on
The economic hardship in the country has many traders pessimistic.
Traders in many parts of Kampala city have complained of the unusual low sales due to the few customers.
"I had expected big sales and stocked more than two hundred turbans and tarabus (religious caps for Muslim men) in total which is the usual number I sell on Eid days, but I sold only about 20," lamented Wasswa Ashiraf, a roadside vendor on Luwum Street. He attributed the low sales to the current economic hardships that have hit many people. He sadly said that he had no option other than keeping the stock till the next Eid.
In the same way, Hadijah Nakayima, a hijab (religious attire for Muslim ladies) seller whose stock amounted to eight million shillings but had made just over Shs 400,000 from sales. She told journalism@mak that she registered the lowest sales in the holy week. However she is optimistic that if she can sell them at a lower price later on, then maybe the pain of the loss would lessen. Usually the clothing goes for about 70,000shs to 150,000 depending on the taste of the customer, so she hopes to lower the price to 65,000sh and 85,000sh respectively.
Dr. Fred Muhumuza, an economist, confirmed that the economic situation is challenging but attributed it to the continuous decline of the value of a shilling compared to other currencies. He for example cited the value of the dollar in August, 2017 which was at 3,552 compared to the same month of 2018 where it is almost 3800. This clearly shows how expensive things have become to ordinary Ugandans.
However, the latest global economic prospects suggest that the economy will stabilize in the next decade. It projected Uganda's economy to grow at a rate of 7.46% coming second after India with 7.89%. This was based on the economic projects on ground like road construction, oil extraction in the Albertine region, among others.
- Log in to post comments
- 342 reads