By Ambrose Gahene,
KAMPALA
The Northern Corridor Transit and Transport Coordination Authority (NCTTCA) on Friday launched the Northern Corridor Business Information Portal (NCBIP), along with a mobile application, at Kampala Imperial Royale Hotel.
This initiative, according to Cezzy Kanionga, NCTTCA, Deputy Director, aims to improve market access by providing real-time data on agricultural commodity prices and volumes.
He said the NCBIP and its mobile app are designed to enhance business operations, promote financial stability, and create sustainable income sources, particularly for companies, Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) and Start- ups among others.
“The NCBIP is a system meant to create linkages between traders in the six members’ states to enable the Northern Corridor Secretariat to provide information to members of the private sector engaged in cross border trade”, he said.
He enumerated the six Northern Corridor member states to include; Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo, where the NCTTCA is Headquartered in Mombasa, Kenya.
Mr. Kanionga pointed out that for a company to create a profile website on the NCBIP, it should be registered by the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda (PSF-U) to avoid fraudulent hackers from accessing and meddling up with information on the portal.
Mr. Joseph Laker, ACTTCA ICT Specialist, said the portal shall enable cross border business communities access border market information about prices of Agriculture products such as beans, tomatoes, onions and maize among others.
He labored to guide a number of representatives of companies present at the conference, on how to fill information required by the NCBIP form for one to become a member.
“NCBIP enumeration shall be stationed at border points to train traders on how to access information on their smartphones or computers”, he said, while answering a question from participants on how business people can access the information when some are not computer literate.
Mr. Collins Agaba, the PSFU representative at the Conference, said PSFU aims to strengthen Private Sector capacity for effective policy advocacy and market competitiveness nationally, regionally and internationally. He said PSFU is the national focal point to promote interests of the private sector by working closely with Government and other Regional blocs.
