City Hall turns to Safaricom for revenue collection

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja while appearing before the County Public Investment and special funds committee to respond to questions on the audit reports on the financial statements of the Nairobi Water and sewerage company at KICC, Nairobi on February 14, 2023. PHOTO | LUCY WANJIRU | NMG

Safaricom has inked a two-year deal with City Hall to offer a payment platform for Nairobi County services in a move set to lower pilferages in collecting taxes and levies.

The telco says it will develop the ‘My Nairobi App’ for City Hall for free, allowing residents and businesses to pay parking fees, business permits, rents and food and health certificates digitally.

Nairobi has for years grappled with weak revenue collection systems and corrupt officials who continue to deny the county millions of shillings in daily revenue, undermining efforts to boost own-source revenue.

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“We are delighted to partner with Nairobi City County to develop the ‘My Nairobi App’ and to digitise their services and operations which will see increased service delivery at an affordable cost,” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said on Thursday.

My Nairobi App will be part of the “My Nairobi” hub that will provide digital services and a platform to interact with elected leaders.

The platform will also be accessible on Safaricom’s M-Pesa Super App and through an unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) for feature phones.

The new payment system comes as internal revenue hit a record low, shrinking by 28 percent to Sh2.7 billion for the six months to December, in a period that City Hall took back collection of taxes and levies from the Kenya Revenue Authority in August last year after Johnson Sakaja was sworn in as the governor.

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Safaricom will also introduce smart water systems for City Hall, Wi-Fi hotspots in low-income settlements, an integrated traffic and parking management solution and a disaster recovery site.

The partnership will also see Safaricom provide a “closed user group” that provides discounted rates for calls between employees and a real-time communication platform where residents and businesses will engage the governor.

“This My Nairobi Hub…offers a one-stop shop for Nairobi County residents and visitors to access services with multiple functionalities including making payments,” Mr Sakaja said.

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