Government explains difference between arcades, malls

The Minister for Trade, Amelia Kyambadde has released a statement with detailed explanation of the differences between Malls and Arcades and justifying rationale for opening the former and leaving the latter closed.

President Museveni on Monday said shopping malls will be allowed to open starting with June,4, 20 but arcades would remain closed until further notice.

This however left many members of the public confused on the difference between the two.

However, in a Wednesday statement, Kyambadde explained in detail the difference between shopping malls and arcades in a bid to clear the confusion.

“Malls have ample parking space, while arcades are congested and lack convenient parking space. Malls have two major entrances and one emergency exit, but arcades have multiple entries and exits,”Kyambadde explained in the statement.

“The malls have spacious outlets of over 40Sqm with at least one occupant per outlet, while arcades are relatively smaller like at 20sqm with multiple occupants.”

The Trade Minister said that whereas it is easy to control traffic within malls, it is on the other hands difficult to do so within arcades due to their crowded nature.

According to Minister Kyambadde, whereas malls mostly have facilities that offer essential services, like; banking, pharmacies, supermarkets, and sometimes office space whereas arcades are strictly for general merchandise.

The minister named facilities that qualify in the malls category including Acacia, Village Mall, Imperial Mall, Metroplex Mall, Oasis, Garden City, Kingdom Kampala, Shoprite Lugogo, Victorial Mall and Marigold Mall in Ntinda.

On the other hand, Kyambadde named Nabukeera, Nalubwama, Kizito, Ggaliraya, Mutaasa Kafeero, Energy Centre, Qualicel and Arua park as arcades.

“General merchandise shops outside malls and arcades can open for operation as well, provided they consider the provided standard operating procedures,” the minister said.