LOCAL government minister Vincent Mwale has disclosed that a mining company has offered to re-build Lusaka’s City Market and that the new-look trading centre will have banking facilities and a nursery school.

City Market caught fire in 2017 on July 4, leaving noticeable destruction in the country’s largest market.

On July 11, Mwale, in a ministerial statement, told Parliament that the government was looking to build a modern City Market that would accommodate five-fold the number of marketeers in the old market.

He revealed that the plan of action for re-building a better market was already underway.

“I wish to report with relief that no single life was lost in the inferno. However, destroyed property has been estimated to be worth millions of kwacha, with about 1, 375 stands out of 4, 000 affected whilst the number of victims is about 1, 900,” said Mwale then.
“Indeed, government is working at building better! Going forward, the government is looking to build a modern market at City Market that would accommodate five-fold the number of marketeers in the old market, with a bigger bus station and better facilities. The plan of action for re-building a better market is already underway and preliminary indications show that we may require up to US$20 million for the new City Market. The considered timeframe for re-building this market is at least 12 months. Government has also identified other sites where traders can be located [to] while re-building the City Market is underway.”
Following the inferno at City Market, numerous business firms started donating amounts of money towards re-building of the structure.