The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry will recruit 7,000 members in Busia before September.
KNCCI Busia county chairman Peter Kubebea said the initiative seeks to bring onboard traders under the agency's umbrella so they can demand for friendly business policies.
Each of Busia's seven subcounties will recruit 1,000 members, Kubebea said. Each subcounty will also produce six delegates to act as representatives in the county’s KNCCI leadership.
“We have begun recruiting members and they will be business people who will closely be working with us,” Kubebea told reporters in Busia town on Saturday.
He added, “To make KNCCI in Busia strong, we are targeting to recruit 7,000 members in the county. We want to improve the working conditions of Busia business people because some of our members are operating under pathetic conditions.”
He said KNCCI will push for the establishment of modern markets to accommodate small scale traders struggling to make a living in makeshift structures in open grounds.
“When it rains you see mud all over. Traders cannot sell their produce because there are no designated market areas. As chairman KNCCI Busia chapter, I want to ask the national and county governments to work with the business community so that we designate markets for informal traders. If we get organised, we can get donors to build for them markets even within six months,” he said.
He criticised the county's decision to relocate to relocate Busia town’s main market to Korinda in the outskirts of the border town.
Busia has 80 trading centres which mainly host open-air markets whose activities get disrupted by rains.
Edited by P.O
