Traders yet to feel Christmas sales hype

By Elizabeth Ankunda

22^nd Dec 2022

As Ugandans prepare for the Christmas celebrations this coming Sunday, traders in downtown Kampala have not yet experienced the usual festive season business boom but only worried.

The Christmas celebrations come with various activities which include increased shopping and traveling and many business operators expect this part of the year to kill. However, this time it is not the case for traders in downtown Kampala.

They attribute this to the high cost of living, which was caused by the country’s two years of Covid-19 lockdown.

A mini survey conducted by Radio Sapientia in different parts of Kampala to establish business performance this festive season from three to two days to Christmas day, which is the peak of the season.

Some of the traders our Reporter has managed to talk to complain that this hasn’t translated into brisk sales despite the usual hustle in downtown Kampala.

Allen Nassali, a clothes dealer at Mukwano Shopping Arcade, says that they don’t expect a surge in sales in the run-up to Christmas as was the case in recent years because people simply have no money to spend.

Interestingly, some traders point to the eviction of roadside vendors and the Covid-19 lockdown as part of the reasons there is a drop in sales this festive season.

Halima Namigadde, a trader in Nakasero market dealing in matooke revealed that the prices of food stuffs most especially matooke have shot up due to their scarcity in this festive season which has translated into low sales.

Namigadde says that a bunch of matooke now ranges between 40,000shs to 60,000shs compared to the previous years where it was between 25,000shs to 40,000shs.