Arua Central Market Nears Completion, Project Handover Set for October

After months of anticipation, at long last October 2020 has been scheduled as the end date for the completion of the New Arua Central Market.

The market set to accommodate at least 4,600 vendors in Arua Municipality commenced in February 18 2018 under the aegis of the Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvement Project initiative.

Against the back drop of a devastating Covid-19 Pandemic, there have been fears within the general public that the 34.9 billion shillings undertaking might trudge.

However, speaking to ChimpReports on August 24, 2020, Hudson Mayombwe, the Project’s Quality Control Manager negated this apprehension saying all is going according to plan.

“Right now we have reached around 90% of the works because as you can see they are doing painting works and the other works that are remaining is the final cleaning. By October, we need to deliver this project,” Mayombwe said.

Nevertheless, he intimated that construction works were slowed by works on a nearby road and diminutive hiccups at the start.

“We had a road called Duka road that was under construction. And this being the main access, we used to have our mixers down here so we couldn’t go the other side,” Mayombwe elaborated.

“Right now we know that we also have covid-19 in the country. So hard wares were closed, transportation was an issue whereby you had some workers who had travelled to see their families in Kampala but couldn’t travel back,” he stated further.

Considering its strategic position, the market situated in Arua City is projected to facilitate inter-state trade between Uganda and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

According to a 2018 Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) report, Uganda’s monitored exports to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2017 were valued at 3,450,681,651 Dollars.

On the other hand, the value of imports from DRC handled through core trade infrastructure was worth 5,676,566, 914 Dollars.

To leverage on this potential, the Government of Uganda (GOU) has moved to accelerate provision of water services within the border town.

Contrary to the past, the area now boasts of the 3.5 million water storage facility at Girigiri and two waste treatment plants in Dadamu sub-county among many other facilities.

“I can’t estimate but the population of Arua is close to 700,000 people. Those accessing water might be less, but a good percentage of that, we can take like 60%,” says Sowedi Kibuuka a site surveyor.