Local traders hope 2019 will be better
A number of Ugandan traders hope business will be better in 2019 compared to 2018.
Outgoing Kampala City traders Association chairman Everest Kayondo said 2019 not being an election year, business is expected to boom with high consumer demand.
The past year saw challenges within the business community including high rent, and high taxes worsened by low sales.
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Many businesses closed whereas others are still servicing expensive bank loans.
This was mainly attributed to new taxes in the running financial year, especially the mobile money tax, OTT tax and the withholding tax, which was later withdrawn by government due to pressure from traders.
"If you make the right and good decisions, you will yield from sweat," Kayondo said.
This year, government is set to invest more money in infrastructure and agriculture, which will stimulate the purchasing power of farmers.
Agriculture remains an integral sector in Uganda’s economy with more than 80 percent of the population involved in small scale farming feeding both the rural and urban residents.
But as the purchasing power increases, the traders want to push government to pass laws that will enable traders grow their businesses.
Such laws include the land lord tenant bill, regulating foreigners engaging in petty trade and the fight against substandard and counterfeit products.
The traders' predictions have come at a time when the economy growth is higher than the anticipated at the beginning of the financial year- having grown at 7 percent
