Distressed Bar owners under their umbrella body Uganda Bar owners association want the government to reconsider reopening bars across the country because thousands of people operating or employed in the bar business are languishing in poverty.
The strained Bar owners are demanding that the government reopens all bars under strict Standard Operating procedures that they are more than ready to comply with if reconsidered.
They claim that most bar owners have continued to register losses accumulating from debt in form of loans,rent among others that amount to over Shs1trillionshillings.
Bars were shut down by the president over 6 months ago in March when a national lockdown was instituted by the president and have since remained closed.
Tesfalem Gherahtu the chairperson for the Bar Owners Association, says the bar industry once opened would work to the advantage of both the Ugandan economy and thousands of unemployed youths ,in addition to people affiliating with bar business.
Gherahtu says bars generate about Shs2.8 trillion annually in revenue alongside providing employment for close to t 6.3 million people including farmers, manufacturers, and distributors among others.
He has thus asked the government to consider re-opening the sector to enable workers who are now jobless to get back their livelihood.
He revealed that as an association, they have come up with a set of standard operating procedures on top of the ones in place by the ministry of health. These include among others; all people must be face masked before admission, mandatory washing of hands and sanitizing by all including staff, availaabity of temperature guns to regulate everyone’s temp and hygieneamong others.
