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Business Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has partnered two local technology firms to come up with innovations that will assist the local authority improve its service delivery.
The tech firms, First Source Technology and Tech Village, organised a three-day workshop last week which brought together millennial thinkers and innovators to leverage on technology to improve Bulawayo’s key service delivery processes and systems.
Dubbed “Emisha City Hack”, it sought to select three successful innovators for a six-month incubation engagement where they will be assisted to develop their ideas and put them into practice. The council has identified several areas where technology can enhance efficiency in the discharge of their duties.
These include booking, parking and fault reporting, health management among other things.
BCC senior public relations officer Mrs Nesisa Mpofu urged innovators to come up with cost effective and practical solutions that complement existing systems.
She said council endeavours to be a world class local authority and technology was one tool that can help achieve that.
“As a city we want to have a good e-governance system that will allow our clients to have services without having to come to our office. Some of those services we hope to get technology for are improvement for a fault reporting mobile application to be linked to our call centre. Also on booking for our halls, managing of our property, we should be able to have the information electronically and also we need an application for city parking,” she said.
Tech Village founder, Mr Tatenda Chingonzo, said the event provided young people with necessary resources that help them develop their ideas. He said the future of the city lies in technology and that idea generation would go a long way in improving service delivery and efficiency in Bulawayo.
“This is intended to showcase the ability to provide home-grown solutions for business, Government and other stakeholders. This stems from the realisation that many ICT solutions, which are present in the market are imported while there exists sufficient local talent with the ability to meet domestic needs. It also presents an opportunity to create awareness for ‘tech’ as a career choice for the youth,” said Mr Chingonzo.
Last week, BCC live-streamed its full council meeting for the first time, a move meant to increase transparency and increase residents’ participation in running of the city. — @PrinceNkosy102
derick.khumalo