Hawkers Succession Scheme

The Hawkers Succession Scheme (HSS) aims to help veteran hawkers, who are intending to retire but are unable to find suitable successors among their family members or relatives, to pass down their skills, recipes and hawker stalls to aspiring hawkers.

The scheme will also provide an opportunity for aspiring hawkers to operate a hawker business with an established clientele and hawker food recipes that have been refined over the years.

Under the HSS, interested aspiring hawkers will be assessed on their culinary skills before NEA facilitates to pair them with retiring veteran hawkers. Upon successful selection and pairing, potential successors will undergo a 3-month apprenticeship under the veteran hawkers to learn the ropes of running a successful hawker business as well as to learn the signature dishes of the veteran hawkers. 

To ensure that the potential successors can maintain the quality and taste of the signature dishes sold by veteran hawkers, food tasting evaluation will be conducted to assess if they are ready to succeed their veteran hawkers. The food tasting evaluation test will be helmed by the assigned veteran hawker, NEA and member(s) of an independent HSS advisory panel.

Potential successors who pass the food tasting evaluation test will then be allowed to take over the veteran hawkers’ stalls. They will also be subject to various conditions pertaining to stall’s brand and signature dish offerings to ensure that the veteran hawker’s legacy is sufficiently safeguarded.

In addition, to ensure a smooth succession, the veteran hawkers may also continue to provide mentorship of up to 2 months (optional), after the successors have taken over the stall from them. NEA will also provide a nominal stipend to the veteran hawkers, in recognition of their time and efforts in guiding their successors during the apprenticeship and mentorship phases.

1. The applicant must be a Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident and 21 years old and above.

2. The applicant must not be:

        i.  debarred from holding a hawker licence by NEA
       ii.  a former assistant/nominee who has been de-registered by NEA
      iii.  banned by the Government/Statutory Boards from taking part in any business tenders
      iv.  an undischarged bankrupt
       v.  an existing stallholder or a joint operator of two or more cooked food stalls in markets/hawker
            centres managed by NEA
      vi.  a family member or relative of the retiring veteran hawker with whom he/she will undergo
           apprenticeship

   3. The applicant:
       i.  If shortlisted, must pass a culinary skill test and interview
      ii.  If successfully paired with a retiring veteran hawker, must go through a 3-month apprenticeship
           under the veteran hawker, whereby the apprentice would learn the recipe and the necessary
           cooking techniques from the veteran hawker, with the intent of replicating the veteran hawker’s
           signature dish(es), and taking over the veteran hawker’s stall
     iii.  Must attend and pass the Food Safety Course Level 1 before he/she can go through
            apprenticeship at the veteran hawker’s stall

In addition to the prevailing national hawker policies, the successor must abide by all the following key conditions to maintain the veteran hawker’s legacy:

1. Maintain veteran hawker’s signature dishes (for the first 3 years);
2. Maintain veteran hawker’s stall name (for the first 3 years);
3. Maintain the food price of the veteran hawker’s signature dishes (for the first 18 months);
4. Shall not terminate the stall tenancy (for the first 12 months);
5. Shall not transfer the stall (for the first 3 years); and
6. May introduce new dishes on top of the veteran hawker’s signature dishes, and no restriction on any new or innovative sales/marketing/operating concepts.

1. Interested applicants to fill in the Registration Form for Aspiring Hawker and email the completed form to nea_hss@nea.gov.sg.  

As we are piloting this scheme and the number of retiring veteran hawkers are limited, we will only be notifying shortlisted applicants when there are potential pairings and invite them for a culinary skill test and interview. 

2. Interested veteran hawkers to fill in the Registration Form for Veteran Hawker and email the completed form to nea_hss@nea.gov.sg.  

Please visit FAQs for HSS