By Binta Jaiteh
Rohey Malick Lowe, Mayor of Banjul has said her office is committed to transform lives and livelihoods of Banjul residents.
Mayor Lowe made this commitment at the launch of digital revenue collection project for residents of Banjul held at Albert Market, Banjul. The Banjul City Council on this project partnered with United Nations Development Programme.
“Today, we gather here in realization of this wonderful achievement after a long struggle of instruments for ways of increasing our revenue and carrying out our key developmental project for Banjul,” she said.
“My council is more committed to the transformation of lives and livelihood of Banjulians and the rest of Gambians, by extension,” she said while noted that her team has brought the dream to collect council taxes and levies digitally.
“We are all aware that the world is in the realm of technology and we cannot afford to be left behind as a City Council in harnessing the many gains that the internet and ICT bring to our present day lives. We are ready for the challenges posed and we are willing to embrace the benefits brought by ICT and for a start market revenue digitalization,” she added.
Meanwhile, Aissata De, the Country Representative of UNDP said the project signifies the importance of signing an MOU between UNDP and BCC and how that achievement accelerated delivery on the project. She added that the project also expressed excitement for UNDP’s support for the Gambia’s digital evolution through the Banjul Smart Cities Pilot Project.
“I encourage the Council to embrace partnerships by promoting information sharing and digital advertising. Offer the information management system or kiosk as a way to do just that by getting closer to the market vendors and Banjulians, but also visitors. Emphasize that destination Gambia deserves to be promoted globally, just the same way that young entrepreneurs need to promote their businesses and how the kiosks level the playing field in both scenarios.
She therefore applauded the efforts of the BCC to transform the city of Banjul over the past five-six years with better road infrastructure; better street lights powered with more eco-friendly energy. A healthier shoreline built resiliently with plant life and of course, monitoring systems only available in Banjul,” she revealed.
