KCCA’s Weyonje App creates over 15,673 jobs for Ugandans
Hajjat Minsa Kabanda, the Minister of Kampala and Metropolitan Affairs, applauded KCCA for this innovation, saying it has now brought services closer to people, calling upon the public to embrace it.
Over 15,673 jobs have been created by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) through its Weyonje innovative application. The application fetched Kampala City an award during the Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation held in China.
According to KCCA, several sewage-collecting individual personnel and companies are making use of the application to get tenders for collecting sewage from Ugandans across the country.
Dorothy Kisaka, the Executive Director of Kampala Capital City Authority, notes that the application which has contributed to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda has also reduced the time taken by sewage collectors to reach their clients, from 1 week to 1hr.
“I want to appeal to all of us to be smart city ambassadors. Through the Weyonje App, we have hundreds if not thousands of smart city ambassadors. Our smart city agenda is only going to succeed if we have smart city ambassadors,” she said.
She added that the usage of the application has also reduced the population of people who poorly dispose of waste stools, from 70% to 20%, especially in a country where 90% of the population uses pit latrines.
“We used to have a collection efficiency of waste of 40%. We used to collect the waste from septic tanks and latrines only at 40%. Right now, we have risen to 80%. And when we were collecting at 40%, it meant that the waste was being disposed in the drainages, and that is what was bringing optimistic diseases like cholera,” she added.
Hajjat Minsa Kabanda, the Minister of Kampala and Metropolitan Affairs, applauded KCCA for this innovation, saying it has now brought services closer to people, calling upon the public to embrace it.
She said the gap that was left by the private pit emptier has now been bridged after innovating such an application.
By the time Kampala City received the award, over 12% of the cities on the whole were on track of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda.
Olive Namazzi, the Executive Secretary of Public Health at KCCA, says the application has contributed to the creation of 15,673 jobs.
The ‘Weyonje’ app serves as a shining example of how technology and community engagement can address complex urban challenges. It’s a beacon of hope for other cities across the globe facing similar trials like Kampala.
