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More Dubai residents getting a ‘smart’ start

Dubai - DubaiNow — an app for all city services — aims to offer citizens and residents a one-stop-shop experience for all government interactions.

The acceleration of digital services in Dubai is evident as the outbreak of Covid-19 has compelled residents to switch more to online services. And Smart Dubai’s popular application, DubaiNow, is gaining popularity as registered users have soared to 515,000, said Wesam Lootah, CEO of the Smart Dubai Government Establishment.

DubaiNow — an app for all city services — aims to offer citizens and residents a one-stop-shop experience for all government interactions that provides users access to more than 120 government and private sector services from over 30 entities.

“Smart Dubai’s leading objective is to embrace advanced technologies to ensure people’s happiness and wellbeing. DubaiNow is a perfect example of how this can be done, allowing people to spend less time and effort on completing their transactions,” Lootah said.

“Nevertheless, the unprecedented events of 2020 have demonstrated that the application can also ensure people’s health safety, where DubaiNow played a critical role in the national efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19.”

The city services on DubaiNow can be classified into 12 different categories: Bills, mobile, driving, housing, residency, health, education, police, travel, islam, donations and general.

Users can save time and access contactless city services on DubaiNow, such as bill and fine payments; Salik and Nol top-ups; car registration renewals; mParking; Enoc and Eppco fuel top-ups; residency management for a spouse and child; academic history requests; GDRFA travel and dependents report requests; flight tracking; digital business cards; and much more.

Other services allow users to sign contracts and request important information, including signing a tenancy contract and obtaining Ejari certification; signing KHDA parent-school contracts instantly; and applying for KHDA academic history reports, among others.

“When we launched the DubaiNow application, the idea was to offer citizens and residents a one-stop shop for all government interactions and services, available anywhere, any time, and from the convenience of their smart devices. The platform has come a long way since then and has evolved into much more than that. It has become an effective instrument for us to achieve our mission to build a world-leading smart city here in Dubai and establish it as the world’s happiest and smartest city.” added Lootah.

In October alone, the DubaiNow application was downloaded over 31,000 times. The application reported 10,939 new registered users that month and processed 266,843 transactions worth Dh157.1 million in October. Since its official launch, the application has processed 11.47 million transactions, valued at more than Dh6.03 billion. It registered 84.24 per cent on the Happiness Meter.

The app was a central component of Smart Dubai’s ‘Stay In, We’ve Got You Covered’ campaign, launched as part of national efforts to curb the spread of the Covid-19. The campaign called on all individuals to make use of the services offered through the DubaiNow app, allowing them to avoid unnecessary direct contact with people, cash and payment terminals.

— sandhya@khaleejtimes.com