Nyamira County through the Department of Trade has initiated a programme of face-lifting dormant markets across the county in a bid to boost revenue collection.
The markets that include fresh produce markets and those that deal with livestock in the county that have been dormant for a long period of time will start working as soon as their infrastructures are complete.
County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Trade Bernard Maina on Friday said the markets in the county would be opened in phases to allow the county to allocate resources to the markets for efficient service delivery to prevent traders from travelling long distances to conduct business.
The officer said the cry from traders who have been using a lot of resources travelling with their produce and livestock to markets made the county government came up with plans that will save the traders the burden of travelling from one market to the other as they are usually far apart.
“We have heard the cries of our traders who are travelling kilometers away to sell or buy goods in the markets which are usually away from their homes. This has meant they use a lot of resources in transporting fresh produce and agricultural fresh produce which are perishable,” Maina said.
He spoke at Makairo market in Bogichora ward in Nyamira County when he presided over the opening of the livestock section in the market, where he also called upon the traders to give revenue to the county government so that it could help them get services.
“Let us all make good use of this market to develop ourselves. Our livestock traders can now do their business here without the stress of travelling with their livestock several kilometers away to trade the livestock which in most cases makes them incur expenses. Let us also pay the required revenue to our county so that we can get more service delivery from the devolved unit,” Maina added.
On his side, Bogichora ward MCA George Morara said he was going to push for allocation of more funds to the Trade Department to ensure the markets are face lifted to the required standards to suit the needs of traders who generate revenue for the county.
“As the MCA, I will push for more funds to the Department of Trade so that our markets can be developed in terms of infrastructure for traders to have a conducive working environment because it is through trade that we get revenue to develop our country,” Morara noted.
According to residents, the livestock market will be a way of improving money circulation in the area and also act as a catalyst for more expansion of the market that was almost forgotten.
“We call upon the county government to help us develop the infrastructure of this market because it will serve not only the locals but also the neighbouring communities and there will be money circulation in the locality,” said Peter Osano, one of the traders.
By Deborah Bochere
