Trade Minister clarifies on businesses allowed to reopen

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Amelia Kyambadde has come out to clarify on some of the presidential directives issued.

Addressing the nation on Tuesday, President Museveni allowed food markets, wholesale, hardware shops, metal works, woodworks, warehouses, insurance providers, 30 lawyers to be coordinated by Uganda Law Society, restaurants but only for take-away and garages at resume operations after five weeks of lockdown.

However, the President didn’t mention spare parts shops or the kind of wholesale shops that are allowed to reopen.

This morning, the police in Kampala deployed heavily in Kiseka market to prevent traders from opening their spare parts shops arguing that they had not been allowed to reopen.

“Since garages were opened, spare parts shops are also to open to supply the garages with the necessary equipment. However, standard operating procedures must be adhered to in managing all the operations,” Kyambadde said while speaking to journalists at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala.

For wholesale shops, Kyambadde said those allowed to operate are only the ones dealing in essential products such as foodstuffs, medicines, agriculture inputs and veterinary shops.

On transport, Kyambadde reiterated Museveni’s decree that the only cars allowed to move are those with stickers issued by the Ministry of Works and branded buses for companies to ferrying employees to and from work.

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