Commerce ministry and informal-sector collective sign 20-million-gourde deal for merchants

Haiti's Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI) and the Collective of Citizens of the Haitian Informal Sector and Small Businesses (CCSHPE) signed a 20-million-gourde memorandum of understanding on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, to help merchants hit by insecurity get back on their feet, Le Nouvelliste reports.

According to the daily, the agreement aims to support merchants who are victims of insecurity and have been "stripped of their capital by violence." The collective must account for the use of the funds within a month.

The ministry is led by James Monazard, who on October 16 launched a business-formalization caravan at the Hôtel Montana in Pétion-Ville.

Formalizing the informal sector

According to the MCI, quoted by Le Nouvelliste, the agreement also aims "to provide technical support to beneficiaries in regularizing their activities and developing their skills," to help them join the formal sector.

Few details have been made public. The number of beneficiaries, the markets or departments covered, the selection criteria, the source of the funds and the nature of the aid (grant or repayable credit) were not specified in the available information.

The agreement is part of the ministry's formalization drive. The MCI says it has registered 19,720 merchants since December 2024, including 13,222 in the West department. Its regional caravan, launched on October 16 under the patronage of the Prime Minister's Office, aims to support at least 5,000 businesses across all ten departments between October and November.

Merchants driven out by gangs

The collective, which Vant Bèf Info calls CCSIHPE, brings together merchants who say they lost their selling spaces and income to armed-group violence in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. Several of them worked at the Champ-de-Mars, in the centre of the capital, before being forced to leave.

On Thursday, September 10, the collective marched from Boudon to the Prime Minister's Office in Delmas 60. It demanded safe conditions to return to work, a National Commission for Displaced Merchants, reparations for victims of violence and schooling for children of displaced families.

On Tuesday, October 20, its members took to the streets again, marching toward the Prime Minister's Office in a third phase of mobilization. They demanded justice, reparations and state support. The agreement was signed eight days later.