By RABECCA CHIPANTA –
NDOLA City Council (NCC) has closed more than 90 shops in the central business district (CBD) for non-renewal of licences and failure to meet the required standards.
NCC public relations officer Brian Chalusa said the process, which started last week, was initiated due to non-adherence to the Local Government Act which required all businesses to renew trading licences.
Mr Chalusa said the operation, which is on-going until the end of the month, would be extended to other areas next week.
He said the council had been going round doing physical inspections to identify non-compliant business houses.
“The council had put up a notice that they would be moving door-to-door to conduct inspections of trading licences.
“This operation is conducted annually after the year-end and people were all expected to renew their licences. We have engaged court bailiffs to help with the operation,” Mr Chalusa said.
He said despite knowing that they needed to renew their trading licences, some shop owners had continued to ignore the council’s directive.
“People avoid paying for licences but we want to make sure this operation is concluded by the end of the month.
“The shopping malls have not been spared and we actually closed down one shop at Kafubu Mall,” he said.
Mr Chalusa said it was discovered that some businesses had renewed their trading licences but did not have fire certificates.
“We found that most of the businesses are not only in default of trading licences but fire certificates as well. Some of them have been given up to this monthend to put their houses in order or risk having their businesses closed,” Mr Chalusa said.
He urged business owners to ensure they were up-to-date with the requirements to run a registered business.
Of the 90 closed shops, only 35 had re-opened after complying with the local authority’s requirements.