(ERGO) – Salah Hassan Jidhan, owner of Qaran Travel Agency in Mogadishu, has not sold any airline tickets since the ban on travel was imposed by the authorities to curb the spread of Coronavirus.
Salah and his six employees are now all struggling to pay their bills and support their families.
“Imagine the difficulties I am going through. My business was shut for two months and I am required to pay rent and electricity bills,” said Salah, who is the sole breadwinner for his family of 10 people. He can no longer afford to pay for his children’s education, with some of them at university.
The agency used to serve at least 15 clients a day arranging both domestic and international travel. It also provided visa application services for patients travelling abroad for medical treatment.
“The workers want to get paid and they have nowhere else to go, this has affected us in a big way,” Salah said.
It is a similar story at Alla Uun travel agency in Zobe area of Mogadishu, where employee Ibrahim Abdulqadir told Radio Ergo that business had come to a standstill, and he and seven others had been left jobless.
Ibrahim, with a family of 15 members, can no longer pay for his family’s living, health, and education expenses.
This time of year would normally be buzzing for such travel agencies.
“During the Hajj and Umrah season, we used to serve 2-300 customers. Now would have been one of the busiest periods, this is the time we always looked forward to,” he said.
The lockdown has affected the country’s economy, and there are fears the economy may take a deeper plunge.
Ahmed Sheikh Abdullahi, an economist heading CTC Institute of Training and Research, said micro-enterprises have been hugely affected, making it difficult for them to repay the loans they have taken out to support their businesses. Some of these businesses have closed down.
Ahmed questioned whether the government tax cuts to cushion businesses against the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic would help, as this will result in further reduction of the national revenue whilst many sectors that contribute to the economy have closed down.
