This is clearly manifested in the number of projects executed at the municipality level as part of proceeds accrued from trades, licences, wastes collection, markets to rates and taxes among others. There must be full community involvement in planning and strong focus on developing sustainable communities.
We all know that most of the grants and subventions allocated to city council are not enough to support some of these ambitious projects. But with these meager resources amid tight budgets, councils and municipalities continue to initiate more development projects for their people.
It was reported in our yesterday’s edition of The Point that Banjul City Council (BCC) has spent more than D100 million between 2019 and 2020 on its activities and operations. This disclosure was made Wednesday when City authorities appeared before the Finance and Public Account Committee (FPAC) at the National Assembly to present their activity and financial reports.
According to officials, the council spent D81.4 million and generated revenue of D76.8 million in the year 2019, and also spent D61.5 million and generated D65.8 million as revenue in the year 2020. This is indeed remarkable.
However, the recent surge in the number of people migrating to urban areas calls for innovative solutions to meet the growing population in terms of service delivery amid tight budgets. It is an undeniable fact that recently, many people are migrating to the inner cities and urban settlement for various reasons.
Experts believe that by 2050, 68 percent of the global population will live in urban areas. In view of this fact, there is a need to strengthen and increase allocations to city and municipal councils to be able to deliver as expected.
Around the globe, City councils more or less faced similar challenges in terms of managing the meager resources. This has forced many councils to devise new measures by forging ‘twins’ and partnership with other city councils and municipalities abroad.
This, therefore, calls for the need for an increase in council’s subvention to initiative and administer more projects. Tight budgets and non-availability of grants has pushed most City and municipalities incapable of living up to expectation. Developments cannot go in the absence of resources.
It is a fact that, beyond central government funding, the primary revenue streams for city council and municipalities are services such as fees, fines, taxes, and assets accrued from buildings and properties.
Therefore, it is important for Central Governments and donor partners to increase funding that municipalities receive to be able to live up to expectations. Let’s remind ourselves that ‘we must always strive for greater heights at the city council level to continue building the public's confidence in alternate political leaders.’