By: Nyima Sillah
Vendors at the Serrekunda market have called on Mayor Ahmed Talib Bensouda-led council to help scale down the hundred percent increments on stalls.
The KMC increased rental fee on stalls in the market – defended their decision “funds are needed to develop the market.”
Speaking for the vendors, Amie Sallah said they cannot cooperate with the new decision because Covid-19 is still taking toll on their businesses.
“We cannot pay additional fees on top of our monthly fees when we don’t even have customers due to the pandemic. This decision should be reconsidered because we don’t deserve to be treated like this especially during such a trying time like this,” she said.
“During this pandemic we contributed among ourselves and bought all the preventive materials for our own safety without the support of KMC or any government officials. KMC doesn’t care about the welfare of us, vendors in the market and now they are talking about development. People should stay healthy before development comes in because we are the reason behind the development,” Ms Sallah exploded.
Molamin Fatty, also a vendor urged the municipal council to reduce the monthly fees saying they have been through months of economic hardship due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“Sometimes you sit in your store for the whole day and you will not sell even a single butut at the same time thinking of how to feed your family. So this decision is definitely unbearable for us. We want the market to be developed but KMC should not depend on our monthly fees to develop the market. Instead, they should work hard as a council and pull-out funds from the government in that case our contribution will be less rather than killing us in this terrible situation when people are thinking of how to survive,” he said.
Another vendor Lamin Njie described the council’s decision as wrong and said “no one in this market will agree that the decision is favorable for him or her simply because we are going through a hard time and deserve help rather than making the situation serious.”