Covid-19 powers vendors, SMEs

While Malawi continues to reel under the effects of the Covid-19, a section of some local businesses seems to be thriving.

Malawians have felt the impact of Covid-19 pandemic and have seen the business environment subdued in view of the measures that have been put in place to ensure that the pandemic is contained.

The restrictive measures, at global and local levels, have disrupted global and local demand and supply with spillover effects across all sectors of economies due to global inter-connectedness, resultantly impacting on livelihoods.

Maria Chikomo and Loveness Linje are traders plying their trade in the country’s commercial city, Blantyre.

In recent months, life has become tough for them as they strive to make ends meet to support their families.

But the rising cases of the Covid-19 pandemic have proved to be an opportubity for increased income,

Chikomo, 32, is a mobile money agent. Besides making mobile phone transactions and selling airtime, she is now selling face masks and face shields that she flaunts on her stall like a prized asset.  

The entrepreneur has been plying her trade in Blantyre City for the past five years. She says the pandemic has been a blessing in disguise.

She says: “My take home income for the day has drastically increased ever since I included the face masks on my selling list.

“Backed by an average of 30 masks that I sell at a price of K300 each, my business has picked up very well and I have improved my livelihood.”

For Linje, whose stall is located at the entrance of First Capital Bank carpark in Blantyre, there is no better time to make money from selling face masks than when the nation cannot do without the product in public areas.

She says: “This business depends on people’s preferences and it is no secret that face masks have become people’s preference in this period where people have no choice but to wear them.

“In addition to my usual business, I thought of selling masks to meet the growing demand for masks in the city.

“On a normal day, I sell not less than 20 masks, enough to provide basic needs for my family and live a normal life,” says Linje. 

Chikomo and Linje are just an example of numerous traders cashing in from the development.

Scores of vendors at the entrances of major shopping malls, super markets, private and public entities are reaping from the business.

The vendors are not the only businesspeople that have seen an opportunity to make money from the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.

All over town and across the country, scores of entrepreneurs seem to have suddenly realised that face masks, sanitszers and other related items have become the new gold.

A walk down any street in Limbe, for instance—from Market Street to West Street and Customs Road—points to a new and vigorous love affair with these Covid-19 protective items.

Moffat Msukwa, a trader who offers disinfection services, says his business is flourishing on the back of the growing need for disinfection in private and public areas.

“This development has sizeably helped sustain my business because though business overall has not been good, people still need to have their places disinfected now and again,” he says.

And customers’ preferences and needs for the masks stem from their convenience and economical advantages.

Ellen Mlongoti, a Ndirande Township resident in Blantyre, says she finds the masks sold on the streets more convenient, especially during these times when it is mandatory to wear masks in public.

“Oftentimes I tend to either forget my face mask either home or at the office. But thanks to these street vendors who have now come in handy with their masks which are also cheap,” she says.              

So, while the rest of Malawians mourn and distress about the pandemic, some traders are benefiting from the same. This is so because for now a better livelihood is guaranteed for them for as long as the virus persists.