18th Apr, 2016

Efforts to transform Nairobi into a smart city are in top gear with the County government announcing that all payments for its services will be done digitally from the beginning of the next financial year.

This means that all payments for land rates, parking, rentals and construction approvals will be migrated to the electronic payment platform, Ejiji Pay.

Anne Lokidor, the ICT County Executive says the move which started in 2014 with the launch of the Ejiji pay platform will help slash utility bills by for example reporting hidden water leakages and also boost revenue to the county by sealing previous corruption loopholes.

She says this is in line with keeping to global trends where major cities are adopting technology in improving services to people and boosting revenue collection.

“You may have recently heard of Smart Cities, in reference to the current global shift by the world’s cities to the digital era. From automation of home utility services, to intelligent buildings, transportation, garbage and energy management, security and healthcare; global cities are going digital and Nairobi cannot be left behind,” she says.

“The high and rapid uptake of e-payments shows Nairobians are happy with the convenience and ease with which they transact with the county government through Ejiji Pay,” said Lokidor, who oversaw the launch of e-payments portal in 2014.

Ms. Lokidor noted that license renewals for single business permits have all been migrated to the online portal already, offering a good test case for migrating all other payment services.

The ICT Executive, who is also in charge of the Education, Social Services and Youth docket, said a special help desk will be set up to assist those who may have difficulties opening e-accounts once manual payments come to an end.

An estimated 69,000 businesses have already renewed their single business permits for 2016 ahead of this month’s deadline. This is more than half of the about 112,000 businesses registered on the portal that is powered by IT company Web Tribe Ltd.

Ms. Lokidor said the County government has also stepped up training on use of the e-portal, working with groups such as Matatu Saccos which make monthly parking payments to the county.

“No one will be left behind, we will make compliance easy and assist those who have difficulties, but really we have to move over from the manual payments which are cumbersome and an avenue for revenue leakage,” said Ms. Lokidor, while encouraging those making payments this year to open the electronic accounts.

The migration of parking payments to the electronic platform has been the biggest driver of uptake of the e-payments, since one only needs to open a single account to pay for any other services. The county currently uses both manual and e-payments in parallel. One third (about 31 per cent) of all payments to City Hall are now made through the electronic system. The majority of seasonal parking payers (85 per cent) have migrated to the e-portal, 70 per cent of those paying parking penalties do so electronically while 100 per cent of business permits are renewed on the portal.

Overall, the County revenue collection increased 14 per cent equivalent to Sh1.3 billion in the 2014/15 financial year, a feat largely attributed to the introduction of Ejiji Pay.

Where manual forms are still the predominant form of payment, revenue growth has been steady (average increase 6.3 per cent), but where payments have shifted to Ejiji Pay, revenue growth has shot up significantly (average plus 30 per cent).

Payers of land rates, housing and market rentals as well as construction permits have been the most hesitant to migrate to the electronic platform and the Nairobi County government is working on a sensitization campaign for this category of payers.