Amos Turyahabwe who sells books, paper, and pens in Kikuubo says since the government announced the re-opening day for schools, schools, and students have been flocking their shops to buy scholastic materials.
Kikuubo lane
business center is running out of scholastic materials as schools reopened on
Monday.
Kikuubo is
one of the busiest centers within the Kampala business district, bringing
together thousands of people from different parts of the country for both
retail and wholesale transactions.
URN reporters visited Kikuubo and found that traders were running out of
scholastic materials due to high demand and low supplies.
Amos
Turyahabwe who sells books, paper, and pens in Kikuubo says since the government
announced the re-opening day for schools, schools, and students have been
flocking their shops to buy scholastic materials.
Turyahabwe
says that despite increasing the prices, the demand for the materials was high.
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Henry Yiga
says due to high demand and low supply of scholastic materials, they have
raised prices by more than 1,000 Shillings. For instance, a 2 quire book which
cost 2,500 Shillings has increased to 3,500 shillings, a 3 quires book now goes
for 4,000 Shillings up from 3,000 Shillings.
Yiga adds
that a dozen of 96 paged books which cost 8,000 Shillings are now being sold at
8,500 while the 48 paged books are going for 4,500 Shillings up from 3500
shillings.
But Jean
Claude, the Sales Executive of Picture, a company that produces scholastic
materials including books and pencils says that there is a shortage of raw materials,
especially paper which has affected supplies and prices.
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In Lira City
businessmen are also running out of scholastic materials as parents rush to do last-minute shopping to take their children to school.
The materials
such as books among others have been on demand since the government announced that
schools would reopen starting 10th January 2022.
Fabias
Komakech a dealer in mattresses in Lira City says several parents have been
purchasing mattresses in preparation to take children to school. He says he is making
big sales but decried a low supply of merchandise.
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Alwal
Kizito, a welder at Oyam road says there is also a rush for metallic boxes
often used by students in boarding schools at both Primary and Secondary level.
He says due to high demand, they have increased prices from 20,000 Shillings to
55,000 and 85,000 Shillings depending on the size.
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In Kabale District,
Emmanuel Niwagaba alias Ichumu, a metallic case dealer operating at Esso Mosque
in Kabale town says that demand for metallic cases sharply increased since
Friday to date. He says that due to the demand, they have run short of materials.
The prices of Metallic boxes have not increased. Niwagaba says they are selling
small size metallic boxes at 25,000 Shillings, medium sizes at 35,000 Shillings
while the large ones cost 45,000 Shillings.
He says that last week, he sold over 200 metallic boxes which is double what
he would sell in the previous season of going back to school.
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Rukiga
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Silaj Babalanda alias Muganda, another metallic
case dealer also at Esso mosque says that by today at 1:00 PM he had already
sold about 700 Metalic cases compared to other seasons where he would sell only
300. Babalanda says that due to high demand, they are now being forced to
make immediate orders of inputs from Kampala since there are now scarce in Kabale.
He says that most of the buyers are coming directly from rural areas of Kabale,
Kisoro, and Rubanda. He adds that had it not been for the closure of the
Rwanda-Uganda border the demand would have been higher.