Nyamata: Youth breathe a sigh of relief after regaining jobs in restaurants

By Elias Hakizimana.

In March 2020 when the Covid-19 broke out in the country, Valentin Iradukunda lost his job and started to suffer from a financial crisis.

The 24-year old young man was working in a local hotel in Nyamata town, Bugesera district.

Due to the then situation, Iradukunda could not manage to find another occupation as almost every business had been affected as everyone had to comply with the measures established by the Ministry of Health to contain the spread of the pandemic.

Iradukunda could wish to have even a less salaried job to push life ahead since he had had a good salary when he was working in a hotel.

Fortunately, his dream to regain a job has come true and; in April, 2021, he was employed by Calibou Coffee Shop, a private firm operating in Nyamata town.

“I was happy when I was informed that I must begin working at Calibou Coffee Shop as a Barista, I always trust in God that everything is possible. Life has improved unless I earn less (41.6% salary reduction) compared to the salary I used to be given before Covid-19 when I was working in a hotel. I hope that everything will be better as the country continues to recover from the pandemic,”  He says.

Following significant trends in COVID-19 reduction countrywide, local businesses including bars and restaurants are managing to employ some youth who lost jobs during the lockdown.

The sample taken by The Inspirer in our coverage about the national recovery process with focus on Nyamata town of Bugesera District, testimonies show a new image of youth employability in the hospitality industry.

Ornella Uwase, the Managing Director of Calibou Coffee Shop explains that the situation is improving after a long journey of business struggle.

“My business offers a variety of services including fast food, breads, Samosa, capati and juice among others. The past periods of the pandemic especially the lock down and curfew hit our income a lot but the existing working image is not bad. With extended working hours, clients are coming to enjoy our services and we called back some employees to continue working with us. I commend the efforts of the government to think of the business community and extend working hours,” Uwase points out.

The role of business operators

“Our role as business operators is to continue helping the country to enforce the Covid-19 preventive measures against the pandemic as it is still around. We must always remind our clients to wash hands with pure water and soaps, to respect social distance and other complementary measures,” She adds.

Uwase managed to bring back 5 percent of workers who had been laid off and hired two more workers.

The recent cabinet resolutions give green light to businesses to operate at full capacity by complying with Covid-19 preventive measures.

Not only restaurants and bars, canteens also revamped the normal working model where clients can sit and enjoy fast food, hot and warm beverages.

Diane Uwituze has a milk shop that operates in Nyamata town.

She says there is a significant change in financial development compared to the period before where businesses used to close at 6:00 pm.

“The remaining challenge is financial stability. We are still recovering from the Covid-19 effects and we try to use extended hours to get some revenue. I could sell up to 20 liters per day before the pandemic but I sell only 10 liters now. With further easing the pandemic we hope to return to normal capacity of working.” She said,

Richard Mutabazi, the mayor of Bugesera District said that there is hope for many people to get jobs when they respect the measures taken to prevent the pandemic.

“There is now a hope that businesses will recover and take a normal working capacity because the country is progressively building its capacity to prevent the pandemic. Not only restaurants, but also other businesses such as transport, motorcyclists, bicycle riders, cleaners will also get jobs following the economic recovery,” Mutabazi said.

He said that there are lessons the pandemic should teach citizens in terms of behavior to the new normal, like how people can improve their businesses and adopt e-commerce.

“We learned a lot from Covid-19 and such lessons should leave us with a significant occasion to create opportunities in terms of business operation,” Mutabazi added.