Popular Tanga hotel closes indefinitely
Tanga. The coronavirus continues to impact Tanga city as economic activities take a hit.
The city’s biggest and most popular hotel, Tanga Beach Resort, is the latest victim of the pandemic that is ravaging the global economy.
Hotel’s general manager Joseph Ngonyo announced total closure of the facility forcing it to cancel all bookings that extended as far as July.
Tanga Beach Resort is a popular hotel for tourists visiting Tanga, and institutions, including government organisations normally organise their meetings, seminars and workshops at the facility.
“The closure is indefinite. Our last visitor left here today (yesterday). It will remain in force until the government announces normalization of the situation,” he said.
The hotel, according to the manager has sent a large part of it workforce home except for a few who would undertake normal upkeep work.
The Covid-19 pandemic has started to bite hard on economic activities here with small entrepreneurs, especially women selling foodstuffs, snacks, and drinks to school children feeling the pinch and failing to remit loans they have secured from microfinance institutions.
A group of women entrepreneurs visited The Citizen and Mwananchi offices to air their voices and appeal to the government to reign down on microfinance institutions to stop demanding remittances and taking away belongings, including beds from them to cover for their debts.
One such entrepreneur, Amina Selemani said that she has had her belongings taken by a microfinance company and she now sleeps on the floor together with her five grandchildren whose parents are dead.
She asked the government to force these institutions to temporarily stop collecting remittances from debtors, most of who are women.
Another, Hilda Mboya, said that it was surprising that these companies have stopped giving loans to new clients but continue collecting debts.
“Our main business site are closed until the government opens the schools. We live in difficult times. The government must act to protect us,” she said.
