Tanzania's government will construct a new market for small-scale street traders in the Kigogo Sambusa area of Dar es Salaam, with completion expected within six months, according to an announcement by Professor Riziki Shemdoe, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office responsible for Regional Administration and Local Government. The project aims to reduce overcrowding and tackle problems affecting traders operating in the congested Kariakoo business district.
Professor Shemdoe made the announcement during a meeting in Dar es Salaam with Kariakoo business leaders, street vendors and regional officials. He described the new market as an immediate solution while the government prepares a larger, permanent marketplace linked to the Msimbazi Valley redevelopment initiative. The construction will be financed using five per cent of the Ilala Municipal Council's own-source revenue, a use of funds that Professor Shemdoe said President Samia Suluhu Hassan had approved to improve commercial infrastructure.
The minister assigned oversight of the project to the Permanent Secretary of TAMISEMI, the Dar es Salaam Regional Administrative Secretary and the Ilala District Commissioner, tasking them with ensuring the market is completed on schedule. He said he would revisit the construction site after one month to check on progress.
Severine Mushi, Chairperson of the Kariakoo Shopkeepers' Association, said traders stood ready to continue paying taxes and supporting national revenue generation if the government enhanced conditions for business in the area. Mushi also praised the government's efforts to address the difficulties traders face in Kariakoo.
For small-scale traders and informal business owners in Dar es Salaam, the new market could provide more organized space to operate and potentially reduce the costs and disruptions of congestion, though their reliance on government-allocated market space means commercial terms depend on municipal decisions.