The City of Kigali has unveiled a plan to enable street vendors to benefit from VUP financial services. Vision Umurenge Programme (VUP) -which was introduced in 2008-is an Integrated Local Development Program to accelerate poverty eradication, rural growth, and social protection. One of the programme’s products is a microcredit scheme – a VUP financial service- where small loans at low interest rates are extended to individuals or groups of low-income earners. Loans provided under VUP financial services are normally paid within a period of two years after undertaking income generating activities. Speaking during the press conference on August 4, Martine Urujeni, the Vice-Mayor of City of Kigali, said that street vendors who have been given markets since 2016 and those to be given markets soon, will get finance to run their small businesses via the programme. “In partnership with the local government ministry and Local Administrative Entities Development Agency (LODA), we are devising a way for street vendors deployed to different markets to get finance to run their businesses using funds from VUP financial services,” she said. Urujeni disclosed that the entities are drafting instructions that will enable street vendors to benefit from VUP financial services as a unique product. “Since 2016, we started to relocate vendors from streets to the established small markets. In 2016 we registered 12,197 street vendors. Of these, we recorded 5,058 in Nyarugenge district, 5,149 in Gasabo, 1,990 street vendors in Kicukiro district,” she said. She said that, after being given different market facilities, they established saving associations that need to be supported to run and expand their small businesses. Usually, street vendors are given trade stands in the markets free of charge and are exempt from hygiene and sanitation fee as well as trading license tax for one year. “They also have to be trained in running such small businesses,” she said. Rwf727m finance under 2022/23 fiscal year The City of Kigali has unveiled a plan that could cost Rwf727.4 million in the current fiscal year to finance street vendors including building new markets for street vendors. The official said that they have recently carried out a count of street vendors and found that 3,977 need to be given spaces in small markets to be constructed. There are 1,104 street vendors in Nyarugenge district, 1,921 in Gasabo and 992 in Kicukiro district to benefit from the plan. “We are building small markets for some while others will be given trade stands in existing markets. We have given spaces to some in Ejo heza modern market in Nyabugogo and downtown, Kicukiro market and others,” Urujeni said. She admitted that some street vendors abandoned small markets they had been given, saying they were not getting clients as they were not in strategic locations. To address the issue, she said, during the current phase, the street vendors are participating in selecting places where small markets can be built for them to attract clients. “So far we have identified 27 locations. We have 7 places in Nyarugenge district, 14 in Kicukiro and 6 in Gasabo. We had targeted to have 3,977 vendors deployed to these markets by August this year,” she said.
