ADVANTAGES OF www.a4architect.com ONLINE SUBMISSION OF LOCAL AUTHORITY AND NEMA PERMIT APPROVAL APPLICATIONS.
ADVANTAGES TO APPLICANTS.
Click here to submit your drawings.
SAVINGS ON TRANSPORT COSTS.
The never-ending Nairobi traffic jam costs a lot in terms of transport. Fuel prices are high. The traffic jam also costs a lot in time of lost man-hours.
Case study.
For example, a simple visit to Kajiado County Council will cost a minimum of KES 1,000 in transport. The time wasted in the traffic jam especially along Uhuru Highway and Mombasa road near Nyayo stadium Roundabout will be an average of 2 hours.
Once the applicant gets to Kajiado county council, he/she has to wait in the queue for their tun to be served. This is another 1 to2 hours lost. After seeing the personnel, he/she is supposed to visit other related offices located several kilometers from the Council offices. Other offices such as Public health are located over 100km away in Ngong town. This movement is virtually not impossible to cover within a day. This means the applicant will have to set complete days off for each visit. Assuming there will be a minimum of 7 visits till final approval, this translates to loss of 7 working days and a minimum of KES 7000 in transport.
SAVINGS ON TIME.
With the Online application, once the drawings are uploaded on www.a4architect.com, the Kajiado council will be able to give feedback simultaneously with the Structural engineering department and the Public Health department at the same time even though each of these offices are located kilometers apart.Ability to view comments on a mobile device also increases the speed and ease of communication between all parties.
There will be virtually zero time lost since uploading the application takes approximately 3 minutes and initial physical visits will not be needed until the final signing of the permit at the issuance of the hard-copy permit to build/change user/subdivide/building maintenance.
To most consultants and permit applicants, saving time is very important.
PRINTING COSTS.
After the application, the Council representatives usually give comments regarding the drawings. Some comments require rectification which requires re-printing the drawings. The costs associated with re-printing the drawings i.e. transport, printing costs for a simple 3 bedroomed house are in the tune of KES 1,000.
Through online submission of drawings on www.a4architect.com, the drawings in digital format can be commented upon and the changes done electronically, reducing costs associated with printing costs.
After the drawings are amended electronically and Approval recommended, the applicant can then print hard copies for future reference.
This will reduce the huge storage space required by Local Authorities/N.E.M.A for storing the drawings.
ADVANTAGES TO LOCAL AUTHORITIES/N.E.M.A.
CALCULATION OF AREAS.
The Local Authorities base the charges o the size of the buildings and number of plots.
In the usual hard-copy method, its cumbersome, time wasting and very easy to make errors in manually calculating the floor areas of buildings. In the Online submission method, the council/N.E.M.A can easily calculate electronically using CAD software from the CAD files submitted in the application. This will increase Council/NE.E.M.A Revenue since chances of error will be reduced. It will now be possible for Local Authorities and N.E.M.A to effectively ascertain plinth areas and estimated construction costs. With the current manual system, revenue is lost when the floor areas are under measured [Local Authority] and estimated construction costs undervalued [N.E.MA.].
SAVINGS ON TRANSPORT COST TO VISIT SITE.
Using the current manual method of submitting applications, the Local Authority/N.E.M.A is required to visit the site to ascertain location. This costs time in terms of transportation and man-hours. The Local Authority/N.E.MA. employees can only manage to visit one or two sites per day hence delay in offering services to Kenyans. With the online www.a4architect.com submission, the Local Authority/N.E.M.A employees can easily obtain applicant’s location and location details without visiting the site by using the embedded Google map. Applicants can mark their site location within the application. The Local Authority/N.E.M.A. can conveniently see the exact plot location and be able to advice on the zoning controls required.
This will increase the number of applicants served hence increase revenue. The employees will also save the time and effort used in site visits to improve workforce on other productive activities within the Offices.
RECORD KEEPING.
Use of online permit application will reduce the space needed to store drawings for Local Authorities and N.E.MA. Record keeping and retrieving will also be aided since these will now be able to stored perpetually and retrieved electronically though the a4architct.com internal filing system and internal search engine on behalf of Local Authorities and N.E.M.A .
PAYMENTS.
Payments can be done electronically using Safaricom’s Mpesa,Airtel Money and Yu Cash PAYBILL services directly to the specific Local Authority/N.E.AM.A office. This reduces chances of fraud and the convenience will make it easy for more people to apply for permits. Use of fake permits will also decline since it will be easy to ascertain permit issuance through internet Google search.
MOBILE PHONE CONVENIENCE.
The ability for Local Authority/N.E.MA.A officials to issue comments on applications through internet-enabled mobile phones will aid in making the working conditions easier since the employees can e able to work from remote locations away from their offices conveniently.
Likewise, applicants will also be able to view comments made on their applications on their mobile phones hence aid convenience in information transfer.
Currently, applicants apply to both Local Authority and N.E.M.A separately. This will harmonize the application such that applicants can apply to both at the same time simultaneously.
USING THE SERVICES:
There are 2 options .
- Fees charged to applicants per application.
- Outright purchase of portal by Local Authority/N.E.MA.
Fees charged per applicant.
A fee of accessing the portal will be levied per application. This fee will enable the applicant access the Local Government/N.E.M.A communication. More technical support in regards to amending the applications to meet the requirements s commented on the Local Authority/N.E.M.A will be provided to applicants at a cost set in relation to the building size in m2. Delivery of Hard Copied and signed hard-copy application forms after comments have been agreed on will also be given as an add-on premium service. Courier services such as FedEx,DHL will deliver the hard copies to the Planning department head .
Outright purchase of portal.
This will include setting up of the portal for the Local Authority/N.E.M.A with their preferred url address and training of their personnel to use the service.
Users will then access the portal and fees for accessing will be set by Local Authority/N.E.M.A and included within the statutory fees.
Click here to submit your drawings.
Architect Francis Gichuhi Kamau
+254721410684.
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