Thursday, March 28, 2024

President Lungu commits himself to securing K1.5 million to construct a trading shelter for 2,000 traders in Kitwe

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President Edgar Lungu addressing Chisokone marketeers during the officially open a shelter at Chisokone main market in Ndola
President Edgar Lungu has committed himself to securing K1.5 million required for the Kitwe City Council (KCC) to construct a trading shelter that can accommodate about 2,000 traders at Chisokone A market in Kitwe.

During the opening of a trading shelter at Chisokone market on Saturday, President Lungu regretted the death of a female street vendor who was allegedly battered by police officers from KCC and assured that Government would find resources to enable the council to construct decent trading places for vendors.

Kitwe mayor Christopher Kang’ombe confirmed in an interview yesterday that President Lungu assured him that he would instruct the Ministry of Finance to look for K1.5 million for the construction of a market shelter for vendors.

“The President asked me how much we need to complete the new street vendors’ shelter and I responded that based on the bill of quantities we submitted to the Ministry of Local Government, about K1.5 million will help the local authority cast three slabs and a shelter for street vendors to permanently trade in,” Mr Kangómbe said.

He said the trading shelter is meant to accommodate street vendors that were removed from the streets earlier in the year.

And Kitwe town clerk Bornwell Luanga said the council is happy with President Lungu’s assurance that he will source funds for the shelter.

Meanwhile, United Street Vendors Foundation (USVF) in Kitwe has commended President Lungu for directing local authorities to first find alternative space to relocate vendors before removing them from the streets.

USVF Kitwe district coordinator Paul Mambwe said in an interview yesterday that President Lungu has demonstrated that he is a father of the destitute by listening to the cries of the street vendors.

“President Lungu is a father to us, the street vendors. We are happy that he touched on this important issue of street vending when he came to Chisokone market on Saturday,” Mr Mambwe said.

8 COMMENTS

  1. Shouldn’t we be talking of building industries/factories which should absorb vendors and move them away from the streets instead of formalizing street vending? We should take some lessons from the approach Singapore took to move from Third World to First World!

    • Ghana has successfully launched “GhanaSat-1”-its first satellite into space while we are busy burning market stands for the poor, sabotaging power transmitters, insulting the President and calling him a foreigner. Watch this space as Ghana race for a technology driven economy.

      What are our Universities doing? They should have been driving some research for institutional capacity building and meeting the corporate innovation needs at a fee. When are we going to drift into an economy of incubates. Nothing economically sustainable can be realized from condemning ourselves into an import oriented economy. Every hard currency earned is quickly mopped out for purchases in foreign markets.

  2. @Senior, and who can trust Zambia under dictator Lungu to do what Ghana has done? it is PF that has taken us backwards

  3. A Ghanaian is producing cars while Lungu is busy oppressing HH and thinks that the country will go forward; nowpeople will que up for cash at banks

  4. Socrates while you are building industries/factories meanwhile what is the vendors going be doing, if trading as they do from where? Actually industries / factories even if build will not employee every body.

    • @Lemba, remember that this is a country of less than 15million people. Those that need jobs are below 5million. You mean we are so bad at managing our own affairs that we should embrace street vending as a solution to decent jobs? In fact with proper policies and the natural resources Zambia has, we may not even have enough workers!

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