Businesses in Chimbu benefiting from election, official says

Business
Sebastian Kee

By PETER ESILA
CHIMBU provincial acting administrator Sebastian Kee says General Election 2022 (GE22) is contributing to increased economic activities in the province.
He said based on ongoing surveys conducted by his team, there had been an increase in the number of shoppers and people accessing services provided by businesses in Chimbu particularly in the provincial capital Kundiawa.
He said the survey focused on the target population – the customers, operators, including small-to-medium enterprises (SME) and the workers.
He said the data would help to push for the growth of SMEs in the province.
“For some informal secondhand sellers, they collect around K200 to K300 daily, but the election has brought more customers so their daily sales have increased and seen them earning K400 to K500 a day.”
Kee said this was true for the markets and the sale of garden food and for street sellers as well.
He said transport operators had also benefited from the boom in business with the uptick in vehicle hires.
He said hotels and guesthouses were also seeing a rise in the number of customers, especially in Kundiawa.
“These are some of the indicators to show that the national election is bringing in cash flow and improving economic activities in Chimbu, that is what I noticed here based on our street surveys.”
He said for any economy to thrive there needed to be political support.
“There must be the political will and drive to support the infrastructure and institutions of government on the ground to facilitate economic activities in Chimbu.
“When there is no political will, the economy will collapse.
“There must be consistent and stable political support for small to medium enterprises and the chamber of commerce to drive the economy of the province,” Kee said.