The recent move to close restaurants and suspend delivery of takeaways to contain the spread of the coronavirus has left the survival of many restaurants and e-commerce businesses hanging in the balance, with many saying they may not be able to reopen again if the closure is prolonged.

The recent spike in numbers forced the government to suspend delivery of takeaway services threatening the survival of delivery businesses.

For example, the Master Grill restaurant at Kisimenti had taken off, serving more than 300 customers in a weekend before the pandemic, a wide range of these customers came to enjoy their delicious grilled meat of all types.

The owner had just invested in expanding the restaurant and improving its look when the pandemic hit. Now everything has come to a standstill. “It didn’t really make sense how takeaway restaurants posed danger to the point of being closed, yet the very services that deliver this food are allowed to deliver groceries. We have to accept the new measures, maybe the authorities know something we don’t”, said Faustine Dukuzumuremyi, the manager of Master grill, adding that the business continues to incur utility costs, paying workers even at a time business is closed.

Necessary evil

Rwanda Development Board (RDB) defended its decision to suspend takeaway deliveries, arguing that it was necessary “to significantly reduce the number of people who need to leave home and go to work" to contain the spread of the virus.

The home delivery business has grown significantly since last year, more than five companies have joined the home delivery business since last year, and the survival of all these businesses, and the hundreds of restaurants in the ecosystem is threatened by the pandemic and measures in place to control its spread.

Yet for Vuba Vuba, a delivery service that also operates an e-commerce platform which lists and works with up to 250 restaurants in Kigali, Musanze and Rubavu, the suspension of food deliveries has significantly reduced their revenue stream.

“Delivery of restaurant food to customers comprises more than 50 per cent of our business, restaurants are our biggest customers. Closing them down has greatly hurt our business, we now had to adjust our model to stay operational” said Albert Munyabugingo, the CEO of Vuba Vuba.

He operates a fleet of 200 delivery motorbikes, and the suspension of restaurant food home deliveries has rendered many of his employees redundant. He is now working on a way of increasing the number of supermarkets to occupy the jobless riders.

Vuba Vuba, which charges up to 20 per cent on every order that is delivered to a customer's door step, started in January last year, and has grown, delivering food and groceries to customers.