Bamenda will have a new and befitting market that can serve the city for the next 50 years . This was announced by the City Mayor Paul Achombong during a stoke taking visit to the market recently ravaged by fire.
The City Mayor accompanied the SDO for Mezam, Simon Emile Moore and other officials to the Market on Wednesday February 28. 2024 to evaluate first hand the damage caused by fire of Thursday February 22, 2024.
The SDO and City Mayor visited the different parts of the market consumed by the fire. Closed to 300 shops were completely razed by the fire, leaving the owners with nothing to recover.. The finance and material lost is estimated to run into billions of francs CFA.
On the way forward the City Mayor announced that the entire market will undergo massive renovation though not with immediate effect.
“We will do some temporal work for the occupants of these sheds to get back to business. The greater plan is to construct a befitting market that can serve the next 50 years.” he said.
Business owners who lost their investments to the fire took turns to explain to the City Mayor and SDO the challenges and difficulties brought by the tragedy. All complained of massive financial lost brought by the fire and the difficulty to get back on their feet.
The SDO promised government’s assistance to lessen their burden.
Questioned about the possible cause of the fire outbreak, the city Mayor said;” we are still investigating the cause of the fire but from the look of things, it was caused by human errors. I think that many people are really stressed doing business for just 15 days a month, others from the effects of this crisis. This can be one of the reasons why someone will leave his or her shop without switching off lights and other electronic gadgets.”
It remains unclear the plans of the government and the duration of the reconstruction but many hope it will be positive. The some of over 40 million has already been raised by some sympathisers towards assisting the victims.
By: Sama Wesley
