KAMPALA — Trade Minister Amelia Kyambadde has clarified on the difference between malls and arcades after traders publicly said they were confused over the two.
Minister Kyambadde in a statement on Wednesday June 3 also justified rationale for opening the malls and leaving the arcades closed.
This was after the President Museveni in his recent address said shopping malls will be allowed to open starting Thursday June,4, 20 but arcades would remain closed until further notice.
The minister has since explained in detail ahead of the much awaited reopening to clear the countrywide 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.
She added: “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.”
Whereas it is easy to control traffic within malls, the Minister add, it is on the other hands difficult to do so within arcades due to their crowded nature
She said Malls mostly have facilities that offer essential services, like; banking, pharmacies, supermarkets, and sometimes office space, 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.
While some of the arcades she Kyambadde named include 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.
This means all traders downtown Kampala are still on lockdown.
