Kisumu County targets to collect at least 2.2 billion this financial year following the launch of its cashless revenue management system earlier today.
The new Integrated Revenue Management System is set to enhance revenue collection in the County thus uplifting the lives of thousands of residents and the overall social and economic development.
Addressing the Press at his City Hall Office, Kisumu Governor H.E. Prof. Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o expressed that the bold decision to embrace the new Integrated and Automated Revenue Management System was informed by the failure of the County to meet its set revenue target over the years despite its huge potential.
He is optimistic the new partnership with Safaricom will help in slaying the devil of not collecting sufficient domestic revenue, acknowledging failures in previous attempts to scale up revenue collection by other entities that did not yield desired results.
” With this innovative approach, and if well managed, we hope to collect the County’s potential revenue whose target is a modest 2.2 billion.”. He said
He noted the launch marks a milestone in the County’s Own Source Revenue collection regime which he termed as extremely important for the devolved units.
Leading the Safaricom delegation, Madam Cynthia Karuri- Kropac, the Chief Enterprise Business Officer on her part noted the system is a local solution that is helping counties address the challenging issue of collecting unstructured revenue and is currently bring piloted in Kisumu and Elgeyo Marakwet Counties.
Kropac says the system will allow counties provide services fairly and equitably to all citizens very conveniently and having trust and confidence that monies paid are put into the right coffers and finally see the value.
The new system is purely cashless and will enable customers make payments through their mobile phones using Mpesa services thus making available several channels to support seamless revenue collection.
The system is set to enhance efficiency and overall service delivery as it allows real-time verification of transactions and payments using secure unique identifiers including QR Codes. It also ensures real-time reporting of all revenue transactions across all departments in the County.
According to the County Boss, the system has GIS data integration capability that will be employed to help the County in mapping all its revenue sources and resources to ensure enhanced service delivery and make revenue collection easy and more organized for the structured revenue streams.
The Governor says the County is introducing the new Ushuru Centre, a Contract and Call Centre where all County Revenue Staff will be able to assist and resolve issues related to revenue from the citizens.
Kisumu has so far trained all revenue collectors on how to use and monitor the new platform that is efficient and devoid of human interaction. The beauty of the system is that it can work both online and offline.
The system has been on pilot testing since December 2023 and has passed the credibility test according to the Governor. Sensitization of the customers are currently on-going in different parts of the County.
Revenue streams that have been rolled out include markets, town parking, bus parking with plans underway to include into the unified business permits, advertisement, plan approvals and rates etc.
The Governor however warned that the innovation may not succeed much without discipline and committment of staff thus calling upon the County Revenue Board and the Enforcement Directorate to collaborate to be able to realize the desired results. He also appealed to all involved to ensure the County mets its set target.
Joining the Governor into the discussions were his Deputy Dr. Ochieng’ Owili, County Revenue Board Chair Dr. Hezron Mc’Obewa, various County Ministers, County Assembly Chair for Budget and Appropriation Hon. Joachim Oketch Swagga among other Senior County Officials and Safaricom Senior Officials.