Issa Ssekitto, the spokesperson of Kampala City Traders Association-(KACITA) has asked the government to make more money accessible to Small Scale Traders through the Uganda Microfinance Support Centre.
Ssekitto noted that the businesses need a stimulus to recover from the effects of the lockdown which started with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March.
Speaking to the media yesterday, Ssekitto explained that although the government has partially lifted the lockdown, many businesses are yet to recover.
The Ministry of Finance has so far allocated 455.18 billion Shillings to the Uganda Development Bank (UDB) to support the private sector while the Microfinance Support Centre was given 50 billion Shillings for the provision of affordable credit to mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19 and ensure continuity of the business activities.
But Ssekitto in his statement was concerned that money channelled through UDB is not easily accessible to ordinary traders with low capital.
He pointed out that UDB does not issue soft loans or even financial support to small and medium scale enterprises. Sekito was over the weekend speaking at the dialogue on the recently approved budget for financial year 2020/2021.
Ssekitto also asked the government to waive taxes for the period that the country was under lockdown.
