The COVID 19 pandemic that came to rise in Uganda in 2020 leading to a national wide lockdown on March 26th 2020, has resulted in various economic and business disruptions all over the country.
This negatively impacted various sectors and the tourism sector is one of those that had the hardest hit. Under its policy “social distancing” as a way of preventing and containing the spread of the virus, the Entebbe International Airport was closed and travelling to and out of Uganda was banned.
This prohibited tourists from coming to Uganda and yet tourism is the number one source of foreign exchange constituting 7.7 percent of the country’s GDP.
The most affected sectors were hotels, bars, international conferences, summits and travel and tour agencies. I am an owner of a car hire business in Uganda and I usually hire out cars to individuals in need of touring the country, those that need to make town runs as well as do airport pickups and drop offs.
My business has been greatly affected during the lockdown as public transport was put to a halt and only private vehicles of essential workers with government stickers were permitted to move meaning that I had no clients during this period and all the cars were parked.
The cars were packed for a very long time without use resulting in functionality problems such as flat tires, battery problems, engine problems among others.
As the lockdown was lifted, meeting the high costs for resolving the problems was difficult due to insufficient income. The car parking fees also accumulated as well as office rent for all the months during lockdown.
Even though the lockdown was lifted, the business still did not effectively operate as it used to as clients remain scarce. Also some cars were acquired through loans which have to be paid with interest.
Despite these expenses concerning the business, I also had personal costs to incur to ensure a stable livelihood and a maintenance of sanity, which were reduced since no income was being derived from the business.
With all these accumulated expenses, the business is collapsing therefore I need financial support from the LGBT Society to ensure I sustain its existence and secure its future success and flourishment.
