Rising unemployment rates in Francistown have led to economic challenges, prompting both older and younger adults to take to the streets in search of livelihoods.
Officials in the city attribute the surge in street vending to residents’ attempts to sustain themselves financially, given the city’s staggering unemployment rate of 45.3 percent.
Francistown has been facing a myriad of economic misfortunes for the past decade and a half due to a number of business closures thereby forcing many people into streets to practice vending.
“Lack of economic diversification for Francistown has resulted in high unemployment levels,” said Boyce Mangole, the assistant Francistown District Commissioner (DC) when presenting the Urban Development Plan (UDP) 5 for Francistown recently.
While others have chosen to venture into the informal sector, unemployment has pushed many others to depend on government schemes such as destitution programmes for survival.
According to Mangole, the economy of Francistown has been heavily reliant on the mining, tourism, textile industry, beef industry, wholesaling and fly-by-night industries.
“The closure of mines, Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) and some textile industries has narrowed the economic base of the city hence the street vending turning into a major source of livelihood for many struggling residents,” he said.
Street vending in this pathetic economic environment is a relief to the suffocating economy as it creates jobs, not only for older adults around the city but also for the youths, most of them are drowning in drug abuse as a stress reliever.
It (street vending) also provides alternative sources of income, particularly for women and provides low-cost products mainly to low-income groups in the city who are trying to make ends meet in an economy where jobs are not available.
However, the proliferation of the informal sector businesses is slowly becoming an eyesore in Francistown, according to the Francistown City Council (FCC) mayor, Godisang Radisigo.
“This engine of growth remains one of the major challenges that need to be addressed because the city is unaesthetically appealing because of its proliferation,” said the city father.
Radisigo said residents are now turning every available space into a vending store – a development that is making it difficult for passersby to negotiate their way on the pavements of the central business district of Francistown.
“However, their contribution to the local gross domestic product remains unaccounted for even though it has a significant impact on the city’s economic growth,” lamented Radisigo.
