New SOPs To Address COVID-19 Released By Crane Management Services

BY MARIA ELIZABETH

KAMPALA, Uganda|SHIFTMEDIA NEWS| As the months continue to trickle down with no seen hopes of arcades being opened, arcade owners such as Crane Management Services have issued Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to be followed by tenants occupying all their buildings in Kampala.

Though president Museveni opened some Malls recently, the majority of the arcades, that house many tenants remain closed in downtown Kampala.

City arcades have remained closed since March this year when President Yoweri Museveni announced a total lockdown as one of the ways of controlling the spread of the deadly noval virus.

While addressing the media on Friday, Crane Management Services Managing Director Rajiv Ruparelia said they are prepared to open their arcades and that they have already ordered for handwashing machines, temperature guns that shall be placed on every entrance and exit of every building as per the Ministry of Health guidelines to ensure that the spread of covid-19 is controlled.

“This will be the case on all the entrances and exits of our buildings. We shall employ more security personnel to ensure that everybody is checked before entering and leaving the building and they will also ensure that everybody wears a facemask as well as observing the social distancing. We shall also control the number of people entering the arcades,” Rajiv said.

“We will work hand in hand with our tenants to ensure that the guidelines are followed religiously because it  is our interest to open up these arcades for our survival.”

Commenting on the rent arrears accrued during the lockdown, Rajiv said,“We are one big family. A building is useless without tenants. However, tenants can’t operate without a building. So we are like a marriage and this marriage is very intimate.”

Unfortunately, he said that government has not given any waivers to the real estate industry.

“If you look at it, URA has only deferred their payments. They have not said that this year we are going to give special considerations where we are going to write off taxes for companies. If you look at NSSF, they have not given any conditions where companies can reduce the liabilities to pay NSSF,” he said.

“All they are saying is that if you’re not going to pay in February or March pay in August. But that is not solving a problem as an economy or for landlords. Now even the Central Bank has given some ease to the commercial banks,”said Rajiv.

During his recent address to the nation President Museveni has warned landlords against evicting tenants due to delayed pay of rent. He promised to talk to the banks to ease the loan collections, but most landlords have defied these directives.