ALPHONSE RUTAZIGWA discovers how a new market transformed lives

Nahason Nkubito is a trader at Agakinjiro market. He operates a small shop of hardware commodities. Before joining the Agakinjiro market located in Gisozi sector in Gasabo district, he was motorcyclist. He says he was earning little, just enough to an able him eat once in a day.
He says when he put his foot in the Agakinjiro market, life immediately changed for the better.

"Life is improving. We get a lot of commodities from outside and sell them here,” Nkubito says.

Nkubito has managed to buy himself a pickup vehicle to transport his construction materials to his consumers. He was given a bank loan because the business was moving smoothly. More so, he has constructed a three room house for his family.

Jerome Ngabonziza, a former street hawker in Kigali City, operates in the same place, through a loan he received from his in-law. He says he is content to be working in the market.

He says: "These markets are very important because when are together, you lobby for a loan and the bank trust you since you work as a team.”

He also deals in electric cables whose stock value rates at about 2 million francs approximately. He has managed to build himself house at Mugina in the southern Province. He says the traders have formed a cooperative society where they pool money as pool for members to borrow.

Beatrice Ingabire, a housewife and a shop owner at Agakinjiro market, says the market has helped her a great deal.

"The idea of putting a market here helped us because traders get permanent places where all sorts of clients visit them.”

"Today I sometimes bank Frw35,000 and I have managed to establish some other business ventures which act as supplementaries to my income.”

Ingabire and others formed a cooperative society known as Cooperative Pour la Promotion du Commerce de Materiau de Construction (COPACOM).

"Though we are not yet legally recognided, we trade in hardware materials like electrical gargets, construction and plumbing materials,” says Emile Ndahumbira, president of COPACOM.

The market place also receives students who come to undergo their practice in technical related profession. According to Edwin Mukiza who doubles as a trader and a student at School of Finance and Banking (SFB), four years back, all traders at the market were skeptical about moving there.

"But now if you ask any of them to compare about the new place of work and the old one, the standard of living people has improved,” Mukiza says.

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