Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has set up makeshift payment points in different parts of the city in an attempt to improve the acquisition of trading licenses.
Henry Kikonyogo, the KCCA revenue supervisor, says they felt it necessary to take services closer to the traders in order to ease their doing business.
Kikonyogo explains that KCCA revenue officers set up temporary desks in various arcades and traders are encouraged to pay for licenses without moving far away from their businesses.
He explains that the trading license application form has also been shortened to one page making it less tedious to fill up and it takes just four days instead of weeks to get licensed.
Kikonyogo says the new system has seen an increase in the number of traders paying for licenses, although he could not give the exact increase in figures.
He also revealed that there is a plan by KCCA to decentralize the work of all directorates to the divisions. Presently city activities are so centralized and bureaucratic. Literally all services are at City Hall. Kikonyogo says that will change since services offered by the directorates will now be got at the divisions in which officials will be posted.
Norah Mukiibi, a garments retailer in Boost House on Ben Kiwanuka Street, said apart from easy access the new KCCA system in which payees fill up a one-page application form is also less tedious.
Ssebaggala Kigozi, the executive director of Uganda Manufacturers' Association, says business people do not like long processes but efficiency.
Kigozi says apart from streamlining payment systems, the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and the executive director Jennifer Semakula Musisi should get common ground in order to enable KCCA function smoothly.
