The City of Kigali is set to work with private investors to construct nine new mini-markets for street vendors and finance some of them to raise their capital so as to make their businesses viable. Pudence Rubingisa, the City Mayor told Doing Business that at least 3,832 street vendors could be supported to leverage the new markets and get finance to run their small businesses. These include 1,800 street vendors from Gasabo district, 952 from Kicukiro district and 1,080 from Nyarugenge district to be deployed to the expected markets. Former street vendors who were given mini-markets across Kigali city. Photo: File. “Some of the new mini-markets for street vendors will be constructed by investors on their own land while others will construct the markets on the land provided by the city,” he said. He said that other street vendors will get, “free spaces in unoccupied market buildings with financial support in terms of tax exemption for three months as well as other support that includes increased capital, training and coaching on doing business.” “Since 2015, over 6,500 street vendors were supported to be grouped in mini-markets and we are working on how to help some recover from Covid-19 effects,” he said. The intervention follows the move by former street vendors appealing for financial support to be able to recover from Covid-19 impact on their sales. The issue of business women in the informal sector, particularly street vendors, was discussed during last week’s Global Platform of Entrepreneurial Women- held in Kigali. This is a group of women from the solidarity economy, administration, institutions and the private sector to pool their efforts and synergies to advance the cause of women. The 6th international meeting of leaders and entrepreneurs hosted in Rwanda was held under the theme “Innovating in women’s leadership to accelerate Post-Covid Recovery” considering that women are key stakeholders in the transformation of their countries through investment in better environment and empowerment. “We have been discussing the business women in the informal sector in different cities of Rwanda. We are mulling solutions that can help them move from one step to another. Street vendors are still facing challenges including lack of startup capital. We need financial packages to address such challenges,” Rubingisa said. He said that the city has had dialogues with the Central Bank and the Ministry of Financing and Economic Planning to consider women in the informal sector as part of recovery from Covid-19 effects. “For instance, a vendor who had reached Rwf1 million capital in the small business and was affected by Covid-19 can also be supported to recover through SACCOs,” he said, adding that street vendors and women in the informal sector should embrace saving culture. Marie Laetitia Mugabo Agatesi, the Representative for Global Platform of Entrepreneurial Women (PLAMFE) in Rwanda said that working in cooperatives for entrepreneurial women in the informal sector could pave the way for leveraging different sources of financing and expanding their small businesses. “The women in the informal sector should embrace the saving culture because it is the way that helps to raise more capital and expand businesses. We have seen women saving only one coin in saving groups and this should be the spirit among women in the informal sector,” she said. Findings from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), indicate that over the past three years, more females were informally employed with 92.5 per cent in 2017 to 91.2 per cent in 2019. Claudine Nyirandangijimana, one of the entrepreneurs in Rwanda, some women especially those from informal businesses have no information about available opportunities which is still a challenge. In Rwanda for instance, 74 per cent of women are in informal businesses, living on a daily basis without any savings or social protection. “Without information, the women in informal businesses can’t get finance for expanding their businesses,” she said. Women in cross-border trade Women doing informal cross border trade are among those that should also be given priority to recover from Covid-19 experts have said. For Rwanda, Cross Border Trade (CBT) refers to trade with Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania and Uganda. It is estimated that between 70 per cent and 80 per cent of cross border traders are women, and 90 per cent of these women traders rely on CBT as their sole source of income.
