Businesses suffer as schools stay shut

Anne Lutowei has been selling fruits and vegetables for more than 10 years at Sogomo trading centre. The shopping centre is adjacent to the University of Eldoret. Like most traders, Ms Lutowei’s business depended on the institution for survival, but since closure and subsequent slow reopening of learning institutions, she barely does any business.

More businesses around here, such as M-Pesa outlets, remain shut due to low economic activity – before students went home, Ms Lutowei would stock items worth over Sh5, 000 per month, but she has been forced to scale down to about Sh2,000 a month, and is hardly able to save from the business.

“When we closed our businesses, many of us consumed all our stock, things have started to improve but we are yet to meet the daily sales we had before corona was reported,” she says.

The trading centre opposite Egerton University is perhaps the busiest along the Njoro-Mau Narok Road thanks to the huge student population at the Njoro campus, however, since the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the centre has lost a substantial amount of business since the university remained closed for nearly seven months.

 And just when the traders were hoping for a comeback after the university reopened, they received a slap in the face when it was closed after the institution’s more than 500 dons downed their tools to protest pay cuts.

Dennis Gachuiri, who operates a cosmetic shop at the trading centre says that when the university reopened, he restocked h cosmetics worth Sh30,000, he is now left dusting his unbought products as the university remains shut.

Hostels

Entrepreneurs around Pwani University, which has a population of 7,800 students are doing badly too. Hostels, retail shops, salons, clubs, cyber cafes, pharmacies and mini markets are among businesses that dot the area, which is strategically located along the Mombasa-Malindi Highway, today, many of these businesses have shut down while landlords who had turned their homes into hostels are converting them into rentals and shops to attract other tenants.

At the Technical University of Mombasa, Erick Opiyo, a hotel owner, was forced to shut down his business due to the losses he was incurring.

“I was paying over Sh15,000 in rent, but had to shut down when the university was closed since I no longer had customers. I also owned a cyber café, which I decided to sell. The pandemic has crashed many businesses.”

The closure of the Kirinyaga University following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country has also negatively impacted the local economy. Prior to closure of the institution, traders in Kutus town where the university is located were assured of regular customers but this is no longer the case. Karen Wanjiru, who operates a house-hold goods shop is an unhappy business woman.

“Before the university shut, I used to sell goods worth Sh4,000 per day, but nowadays, I only manage a thousand on a good day,” she said.

She is not alone, hotelier, James Ndege, had been registering sales of Sh15,000 on a daily basis, but today, he manages a paltry Sh2,000.

A vegetable seller, Eunice Njeri, says the students were her main source of income. On a good day she would make about Sh10,000, but taking home Sh2,000 currently is a pipe dream. The traders hoped to recover when the fourth year students return to sit for their examinations, but that did not happen.

It is the same story at the shopping centre near the Dedan Kimathi University of Technology in Nyeri County.

Half salary

At La Duvet Hostel for instance, a private hostel, business plummeted after all the students vacated the hostel in March, as a result, three of the five staff employed at the hostel were laid off, the remaining two retained on half salary.

“When students left in March, it caused confusion because we did not know how long it would be and whether to charge them rent even with them not staying in the hostel,” the hostel administrator, Carol Kabutu, says.

Around mid-June, the hostel introduced a security fee instead, where the students, who had left their belongings, were requested to pay Sh500, backdated to April. This was until October when students resumed lectures, and once again, the hostel was occupied to full capacity.

In the area surrounding Karatina University, the transport business is still struggling to return to normal, especially because they carry fewer passengers to adhere to the social distancing rule. To keep afloat, the operators have been forced to increase fare.

“Even with the students back, we have a major challenge because we can only carry eight in one matatu as opposed to before when we would carry 14,” Joe Maina, a matatu operator told Higher Education.

Business owners around Tharaka University College and Chuka University have welcomed the phased reopening of the institutions. Ndagani and Gatunga markets dependent on the students and staff here, who are their main customers. As for the hotels and bars, they are slowly getting back on their feet tanks to the reopening, even though restrictions on crowding as well as the 10pm curfew means that less business is going on.

Tharaka University College principal, Peter Muriungi, says that hostels within the institution and the private ones around Gatunga market are fully occupied, forcing students to seek accommodation in Marimanti, which is about 10 kilometres away.

“We are ferrying our students to their rooms in Marimanti town because those in Gatunga are fully occupied,” said Prof Muriungi.

Disruption of learning

The Kakamega town business community has little to celebrate. Business people here have been rattled by the disruption of learning at the Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology after the students at the institution indefinitely left for their homes in March.

Nearly three quarters of them are accommodated in private hostels when school is in session. Francis Ndege from Maraba Estate owns 30 units which are rented by students at the university.

“Since March this year, business has been very bad since the students travelled home, there has been no income from my investment,” said Mr Ndege.

The vibrancy of business activities in Kakamega town have been attributed to the presence of the university and the large number of students and staff.

Several eateries in the town which were serving food and snacks to the students have reported a significant drop in earnings due to the absence of the learners. The owners of clothes shops and salons are also struggling to keep their businesses afloat since their major clients were the students. The same goes for supermarkets and grocery shops in the area.

The transport sector here, which is dominated by boda boda operators and Tuk Tuks have not been spared either since the students used to give them good business as they moved to and fro the institution.

Their prayer, just like that of other business owners across the country whose businesses majorly rely on institutions of learning, is that the year 2021 will bring good tidings, in this case full reopening of schools.

This article was originally published by Daily Nation. [Photo: Nation Media Group/Joseph Kanyi]