Page 170 - AFAP Success Stories 2020

Hub agrodealers take the

COVID-19 crisis head on

The speed at which COVID-19 spread worldwide kept many countries on the edge. Uganda was
not an exception. Measures in the country were taken before it registered its first case of COVID-19.
This included the decision to temporarily disperse area populations that were usually highly
concentrated, such as at schools, and religious, political and social gatherings. Travel restrictions
were also put in place to and from certain high-risk countries.

When Uganda confirmed its first case on March 22, the The severe effects of the global pandemic and the
president declared a quarantine across the whole country. temporary measures that have come with it, have already
Schools, shopping malls and borders were closed. started to take their toll on the economy and Ugandan
Restrictions were also instituted with respect to the citizens. There are reductions in economic activities
movement of people, which included the use of public in: trade, services, hotels, tourism, retail, exports and
and private vehicles as well as motorcycles. The lockdown manufacturing sectors, which means that the country’s
was to last for 14 days. The president also put in place tax-collection targets will not be met. This will affect both
a curfew for 7 p.m. and the only methods of transport national income targets and service delivery. In addition,
that were allowed to move before and after that time the coronavirus scare has led to a drastic increase in basic
were cargo planes, lorries, pickups and trains. Car stickers food prices due to increasing demand and panic buying.
were provided to medical service providers, telecom
companies, pharmaceutical companies, utility providers, Agrodealers in Uganda are facing the challenge of
food-production companies, fuel stations, firefighters accessing some products, for example fertilizers and
and any other company or organisation categorised as also herbicides like the weed master. This was especially
essential. the case when the stock began to run out because of
the limited supply brought about by low imports. The
The president then later extended the lockdown to 21 prices of some products that are not in high demand
days from April 15 2020 to May 5 2020, mainly because have gone down. For example, a kilogram of maize is 950
the number of COVID-19 patients in the country were shillings (approximately 0.2 dollars) from 1,150 shillings
accumulating. At the time of writing, Uganda had 260 (approximately 0.4 dollars). Musinguzi James, an AFAP-
confirmed cases and zero deaths. supported hub agrodealer at M & J Multipurpose Ltd

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