The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa
Post Correspondent
WHILE urban-based informal traders have managed to convert various digital platforms into markets, rural informal traders remain locked out from the new normal and continue to feel the heat of Covid-19’s economic effects.
Informal traders in various cities and towns across the country have managed to adapt to the challenges brought about by the pandemic and have developed marketplaces on social networks like Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter.
However, most of their rural counterparts feel left out as neither them nor their immediate customers possess the digital know-how or the gadgets that warrant one to be visible on digital market places.
Rural informal traders including vegetable vendors, clothes vendors, potters, carpenters, brick layers, cooked food stall vendors usually ply their trade at growth points and business centres like Murambinda, Watsomba, Hauna, Nyamaropa, Chiendambuya, Checheche and Nhedziwa.
Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations (ZCIEA) president, Ms Benita Goneso said there is need for all informal traders to embrace digital platforms regardless of their location, especially during this Covid-19 pandemic era.
She, however, acknowledged that most rural informal traders do not have the required gadgets or internet access to create their own digital market places.
“Our prayer is for our rural informal traders to also find a platform to market their wares profitably. They can do this using the digital market places that their urban counterparts are using.
“It has, however, come to our attention that out rural based traders lack the technology for them to be online and so we are hoping that development partners will assist them with the digital skills as well as the equipment so that they can earn a living and look after their families,” she said.
She also said most urban traders depend on buying wares from rural traders, adding that due to the ban on intercity travel, the normal trading food chain has been disrupted.
In an interview, Mr Gibson Mudemaunga, a potter who plies his trade at Murambinda Growth Point in Buhera, said rural traders are feeling the heat.
“We have no feasible markets here and we survive by travelling to places like Mutare, Rusape and Harare to sell our products. Due to Covid-19, selling our products has become a challenge. We are not accessing our markets because of the intercity travel ban.
“Most of us rely on small phones which we use to receive and make calls. We cannot effectively market our products through those phones,” he said.
Another trader, Ms Anna Mataure of Watsomba said she is worried that Covid-19 will wipe out her traditional physical market place.
“We are struggling to feed our families as our markets have been affected,” she said.
