HATED; Foreign Petty Traders in Kampala

Ugandans think foreigners are not entitled to such businesses

He looked stressed and worried, the eyes had turned red while nodding his head in grieve. Sitting in a black chair, dressed in a pair of black jeans plus a blue shirt covering the top.

Mark, as he preferred to be called, is a graphics designer at Equatorial shopping mall in the  capital of Uganda. Mark is in medium if you relate it to height, black but not much, very good in dressing expensively and many girls yearn for such guys. 

"Am not happy with the way those indians are doing. They offer services at very cheap prices to customers making them to not access our businesses for services, yet we also pay rent and licence" He reacted to my question concerning his sadness. 

Many traders in Kampala city have complained about the same issue for so long. They thought foreigners had to deal in very big investments not owning wholesale and retail shops like Ugandans. 

Most of the involved parties are indians and Chinese.  They own small businesses hence given tax free holidays in the name of investors. They end up selling at cheaper prices to Ugandans. 

Mr J.Ssekamwa a lecturer at Nkumba university says,"these Chinese are given products from producing companies in their country at no costs. So they sell at low costs since they are given a long period to pay back for the products. "

Ugandan legislators went ahead to sanction the minister for Trade and Industry on why these foreigners deal in petty businesses yet they are licenced to carry out heavy investments that benefit Ugandans. 

Hon. Kyambadde the minister for trade said: "I'm not against closing these petty Chinese business, my request was to extend the closure to 31st December " she went on to say"Most of these Chinese traders, their businesses were registered in Ugandan names & this is a very big challenge"

 Hon. Kyambadde also confirmed that they have ever carried out a verification process and  over 1800 illegal Chinese traders were deported. 

The issue is now left pending in the hands of the minister but hurting more Ugandans especially those operating from buildings of high rent.

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