It is a common sight in many cities, clogged streets, people rubbing on each other and in some cases, chaotic scenes characterised by noise, as hawkers compete for clients.
For any developing city in Africa, one generic feature is street vending, or simply put, people hawking goods on the streets, targeting passers-by as customers.
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From clothes to groceries and electronics, in most African cities, particularly those expanding so fast in developing countries, you will find hundreds and thousands of street vendors, especially during peak hours, selling quick goods.
This is something that shocks many people who visit Kigali for the first time. Where are the street vendors? Where can I buy street goods? This is because they don’t find multitudes of street vendors littering the streets.
For more than a decade or so, city authorities have meticulously worked around the clock to resolve what had then become a growing menace, street hawkers.
Those who have been in Kigali for long recall the chaos in the Central Business District, around kwa Rubangura, the old taxi park, where Kigali City Tower stands today, Quartier Matteus and Quartier Commerciale where hundreds of hawkers would hassle commuters heading home in the evening, with the hope of selling something.
Very often, people would be defrauded, buying substandard goods off the streets, only to get home and find that they don’t work as well as promised, yet they don’t have the contacts of the person who sold them the product to get their money back.
But that was the least of the problems the City of Kigali had. The biggest challenge at the time was the threat street vendors posed to legitimate businesses that pay taxes, whose customers were being snatched by the hawkers right at their own doorsteps.
It is a challenge Daniel Hakiza remembers very well, as a trader who has had a shop selling domestic products near City Plaza, for the past 18 years or so.
"I sell home utensils such as saucepans, dishes, cutlery and more. Before, we used to have street vendors selling the same products cheaply, right in front of us and they would easily take our customers.
"Today, customers come straight into my shop and buy goods, if they get a problem, they come back to me, and we resolve it. This is a perfect way of doing business,” Hakiza says.
He, however, says that until today, there are still some challenges with people who do street hawking in a rather sophisticated way, where some individuals stand in front of their shops to woo their customers to go and check out similar goods elsewhere.
"That is not a problem for me, I see it as competition. My biggest problem was street vendors who were everywhere, grabbing our customers and at the end of the day we went home without selling any goods,” he says.
Today, walking around these places, law and order prevails, except for a few stubborn individuals who continue to defy law enforcement to hawk a few goods in a pocket on the streets.
A fake perfume, a belt, a necklace and maybe headphones -that is all you can get today in the CBD. Those are the smart ones that try to beat the system.
The City of Kigali has been relentless in its pursuit for an organised city which is harmonious and less congested for both locals and visitors.
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One of the key measures was to ensure that the streets are not taken over by a swarm of street vendors shoving and jostling for customers. City authorities have been unwavering in their efforts to ensure that trade is done legally and in a more organised manner.
It is a stance that has sometimes got city authorities at loggerheads with rights groups, some of whom think the approach used to deal with the menace is somewhat heavy-handed.
Many developing African cities have failed to manage this kind of situation because it teeters around the right to survival for many, but what would happen if everybody ended up on the streets with something to sell?
It got to a point where City authorities declared that beginning 2017, people buying from street vendors would be fined up to Rwf10,000, as a deterrent measure because customers buying from the vendors were the ones encouraging the vice.
Enforcement with a solution
As Jean Rubangutsangabo, Chief Urban Economist at City of Kigali, puts it, the city’s plan to clear up the streets of disorganised hawkers has not been all about enforcement but rather finding a lasting solution to the problem.
Rubangutsangabo points out that there was a big number of illegal street vendors operating in front of shops, markets, bus parks, petrol stations and parking lots, among other areas, which made it really difficult for legitimate businesses.
"Apart from interfering with legal businesses, the hawkers were a direct cause of pollution and poor hygiene on the streets, and they also ripped off their customers by selling them substandard goods.
"It was not just a matter of removing them from the streets,” Rubangutsangabo says, adding that to date, these efforts continue, as new hawkers keep popping up in places like Gisimenti, Giporoso, Kimironko and Nyamirambo, among others.
In December last year, the Council of the City of Kigali approved directive No. 475/02.12.2022 of 02.12.2022 aimed at preventing the illegal trade of goods on streets but it also provided more solutions to the challenge.
The directive provides the regulation, structure and functioning of small markets, known as ‘free markets’, built to absorb some of the street hawkers looking to regularise their businesses.
Among other things, former street vendors are given some capital and capacity, in the form of training, to help them start up in the free markets located in different parts of the city.
"Under this directive, special instructions were put in place to ensure that these individuals get loans through the VUP-Financial Services Program for them to be able to transition into actual business.
"So far, there are 26 markets where former street vendors have been supported and integrated. We have so far supported 3,425 people to get out of illegal trade and join the free markets,” Rubangutsangabo says.
As a result of this initiative, the former street vendors have been able to form 109 savings groups (SACCOs), through which they have been able to get loans amounting to Rwf70,724,000 to expand their businesses.
Accordingly, they have been able to save over Rwf18 million through their groups, while the free markets have been fully embraced by customers looking to buy goods in an organised setting.
Valerie Uwurukundo, a former street hawker now working in the free market at Gisimenti, says her life was transformed after she abandoned selling fruits in a basket, commonly known as ‘agataro’ to join the city programme.
"More than five years ago we would be playing hide and seek with law enforcement here at Gisimenti, hiding my fruits under the cars whenever city operatives approached us, sometimes with a baby on my back.
"Today we are here, our customers know where to find us when they want quality fruits. At first, we were all scared that customers would not show up but as time went on, we got used to working from here. We have a permanent address,” Uwurukundo said.
The mother of three says that she is now able to save, her goods are secure and that there is room to grow and expand beyond the free market.
Challenges remain
Despite the gains, Rubangutsangabo says challenges persist along the way, with some individuals who remain reluctant to join the free markets, where participation remains at 55 per cent.
He says some individuals simply want to remain on the streets, even with the help they are accorded, while new street vendors keep emerging.
Rubangutsangabo says that city authorities continue to train hundreds of former street vendors on how to run small businesses and hone their business skills.
In other cases, it is the legitimate business owners who send people on the streets to sell goods, which makes it difficult to manage. When caught facilitating street hawking, a fine of Rwf100,000 is imposed as a deterrent measure.
Both hawkers and buyers are fined Rwf10,000 when caught in the act. Rubangutsangabo says that the City of Kigali will continue to enforce the directives and engage in more public awareness to ensure that the city remains orderly, with only legitimate business running, as it is in most developed cities.