The Uniplaques Consortium has proposed to the Congolese authorities since last July the registration of the country’s car fleet estimated at 8 million (all types of vehicles) in the capital, Kinshasa, one of the most populous cities in Africa.
If the proposal is accepted, the DRC would have a kind of physical and techno-digital one-stop-shop nationwide for the automobile. The solution would be accessible to every citizen across the country (26 provinces). At the end of the process, the vehicle division of the DGI will be transformed into a modern Single Window Automobile through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) contract.
Management consortium in partnership with Muehlbauer (Germany), SONILOGA (Niger), FTS (Magic Software Group), Uniplaques intends to integrate the automated recognition of license plates according to the LAPI (Automatic number plate reading).
The project consists of the digitization of the registration system and the acquisition of secure documents, the registration certificates currently issued by the administration in charge of land transport at the provincial and central level no longer meeting the conventional standards in the context of the fight against terrorism.
In addition, a single database would allow better monitoring of the vehicle fleet, prevention of theft and speed in the issuance of documents.
The current delay (3 months to clear customs and register a vehicle) and the hassle in obtaining said documents are fueling a flourishing black market, a component of urban crime. The license plate costs 100-200% more on the black market.
The scattering of official service offices in the city, namely the Vehicle Division of the General Tax Directorate (DGI) or the issuing authority, the DGDA and the customs fraud office, banks, insurance companies, etc. ., make the registration circuit complex and tedious.
Before deploying its solution, Uniplaques says it conducted a year-long study. With a population of 80 million people and an estimated growth rate of two million newborns per year, the DRC adds to its demography a mass equivalent to that of certain African countries such as Zimbabwe and Zambia every ten years. This constant rate implies an increase in mobility, movement of people and goods in the near future.
Hence the thorny issue of vehicle identification. The registration of all automobile heritage (boats, cars, trucks, planes, trailers, motorcycles, and others) is a development issue. However, since independence, no reliable system has existed in TDC.
The solution offered by Uniplaques is a digital transformation in line with the vision of the Head of State, Felix Tshisekedi, to fight corruption and the National Digital Plan Horizon 2025.
The objective of the One Stop Shop is to shorten the timeframe from an average of 3 months for removing a vehicle, to a maximum of 10 days.
