Yesterday, Kampala Capital Authority marked eight years in existence by highlighting its achievements as it thrives to improve livelihoods of people in the city.
Andrew Kitaka, the acting KCCA executive director, noted that the authority has made remarkable achievements since its rebrand and has earned public trust, which has attracted partnerships with the World Bank, African Development Bank, and the European Union, among others.
He said this at the Uganda Media Centre, where he also offered a glimpse into the authority's future innovations. One of those in the pipeline is a phone application modelled like Safe Boda or Uber apps.
The aim, according to Kitaka, is to reduce traffic jam in the city caused by taxis. Once switched on by a potential passenger, this app will automatically alert the taxi that plies the route of the availability of passengers on top of showing the journey expense.
This, according to Kitaka, will ease communication between taxi operators and passengers on top of eliminating crowding at various stages brought about by lack of information. However, this innovation may take some time before it is rolled out due to ongoing feasibility checks.
KCCA spokesperson, Peter Kaujju, said KCCA is considering partnering with the already existing transport services providers like Uber and Bolt among others that use online booking since they have already been in business.
He says that they are also engaging with other stakeholders in the taxi business to come up with a more inclusive and tangible plan. Kaujju says they expect to have come up with a more concrete plan within three months that can effectively be implemented.
Meanwhile, Kitaka also noted that the authority has improved its revenue collection after doing away with the manual system. "Since the introduction of an electronic revenue system that eliminated cash collections, it has enabled us register a 190 per cent increase in revenue collections," he said.
He also noted that through the application of digitally assigned property numbers, KCCA has also completed valuation of more than 80,000 properties in Central and Nakawa divisions, which will bring in an annual property tax of more than Shs 34bn. "Thanks to new technology, all of these properties are geographically referenced," he said.
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