The Sunday News
Njabulo Bhebe, Business Reporter
PAYCE Investments (Pvt) Limited has engaged Bulawayo City Council to consider making use of a digital application programme, which creates a market place and project management tool for local contractors so as to guard against contracting unscrupulous firms to carry out its infrastructural development projects.
Speaking at a policy dialogue meeting on private contracting held by the Bulawayo Progressive Association last Thursday, Payce Investments chief operating officer Mrs Nontokozo Masuku said it has come to the company’s attention that most construction activities in the country, including Bulawayo, were being stalled as owners of the projects fell prey to scam contractors.
“Scam contractors are hampering most construction activities in Bulawayo, especially projects being carried out by the city council. It’s high time the local authority digitalise their activities to improve on efficiency and growth especially on the infrastructural development side. We believe our website the Yakhasqure.com platform can be of great value to the City Fathers in bringing transparency when dealing with contractors,” she said.
Yakhasquare.com is a joint venture between Bulawayo-based Payce Investments (Pvt) Ltd and United States of America-based Oyom, LLC. The platform hosts construction service providers alongside customers and service providers under one roof and manages all the transactions between the parties.
“For so long it has become a norm that contractors fail to complete projects they will have been contracted to undertake and this has killed confidence in the construction industry. Our application will ensure that there won’t be any advance payments by owners of the projects before the initial work is carried out as well as ensuring that all construction material has been supplied and paid for in full,” said Mrs Masuku.
At its inception in November last year the Yakhasquare.com application was meant to guard against diasporans being duped by family members and contractors that received funds for construction of projects but fail to carry out the job.
“When we launched our app it was targeting people in the diaspora but after taking a closer look we realised the same problem also haunted the local market that’s why today we have come to showcase it to the City Fathers with the hope that they will see it as a worthwhile innovation,” said Mrs Masuku.
