- Busia plans a Sh2 billion market to boost cross-border trade
- Stakeholders work on the design of the proposed trading facility
- Plans include smart stalls, cold rooms and solar power infrastructure
A vision decades in the making took another step forward this week, as government agencies and development partners spent two days thrashing out the details of what could become Kenya’s first Jumuiya cross-border market.
The multisectoral technical consultative meeting drew experts from the State Department for East African Community Affairs, the State Department for Housing and Urban Development, the County Government of Busia, TradeMark Africa, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) and several other ministries, departments and agencies.
At stake is the proposed Busia Jumuiya Cross-Border Market, a Ksh2 billion facility designed to accommodate roughly 1,000 traders, with room to grow beyond that in future. Once complete, it would become the first market of its kind in the country, built specifically to boost trade flows between Kenya and its neighbours.
Under the arrangement currently on the table, local traders would take up 70 percent of the trading spaces, leaving 30 percent for traders crossing in from outside Kenya’s borders.
Much of the two-day engagement centred on getting the market’s design right. Participants wanted a facility that would not simply exist, but actually draw traders in and keep them there. That meant working through a long list of proposed amenities: smart stalls, cold rooms, a fresh produce section, a cereals section, a fish section, a playground, a mothers’ room, electronics and textile sections, an ICT hub and food courts.
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Uptake, more than construction, dominated the conversation. Delegates repeatedly returned to the question of what would actually persuade traders to move in and use the space once the doors opened, rather than let it sit half-occupied.
Electricity costs surfaced as another sticking point. Participants warned that steep power bills could quietly erode the market’s appeal, driving up the cost of doing business for the very traders it was meant to attract. Their proposed fix: solarise the facility, cutting reliance on the grid and keeping operational costs down over the long run.
By the close of the meeting, stakeholders had settled on one point of consensus — that turning the Busia Jumuiya market from concept into reality would take coordinated planning, and they committed to keep working together toward that end.
If it comes together as envisioned, the market would do more than give traders a roof over their heads. It would anchor a more modern trading environment in Busia, and with it, a stronger commercial link running through the wider East African region.
By Benedict Aoya
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