Northmead shop owners feel dollar pinch

LINDA SOKO TEMBO writes THE Lusaka’s Corner Mall in Northmead area have complained over the continued depreciation of the Kwacha which has affected them as they pay their rentals in US dollars. The tenants, who opted to remain anonymous for fear of being evicted by the owner of the shops identified as Mr Salodi, complained […]

Northmead shop owners feel dollar pinch
LINDA SOKO TEMBO writes THE Lusaka’s Corner Mall in Northmead area have complained over the continued depreciation of the Kwacha which has affected them as they pay their rentals in US dollars. The tenants, who opted to remain anonymous for fear of being evicted by the owner of the shops identified as Mr Salodi, complained that it was becoming expensive for them to pay rentals every month as the dollar kept on increasing. In an interview with The Sun, the tenants said that the property owner made them pay rent in dollars and the rentals were between US$500 and US$600 which was equivalent to around K9,000 and above per month in Zambian Kwacha.  The tenants said that every time they complained to the property owner to consider putting a fixed charge of rent in Zambain Kwacha, he would advise them to leave his shops, which they felt was not right.  “The owner of Corner Mall makes us pay rent in dollars and this time around the dollar has gone up and business is not good when we call him to give as a fixed charge in dollars. “He says those who want can leave the shop and it is difficult for us to leave the shops because we have established our business there and it is easy for customers to find us there,” they said.  The tenants appealed to government to negotiating with the prosperity owner to consider giving them a fixed price in dollars until the COVID-19 was over and business went back to normal. They tenants said that business was difficult and that people were not buying cloths and doing their hair often because people were not going for functions because of the pandemic.   Meanwhile, Corner Mall property owner Mr Salodi said that they had already reduced rentals for April and that tenants were still crying for rentals to reduce further “I advised them to pay the dues for March then we will discuss further looking at the fact that business is slow.”  “We charge in dollar from the very beginning the benefit of that is we have never increased ever since, we only decrease when the Kwacha depreciates we have reduced three times now,” he said.  Mr Salodi said that charging in dollars made it easy for them because they did not want to be increasing rentals every two months and that he would engage his tenants to see how they could work the rental issues out. The Sun