Beginning next week, all payments made to the Nairobi County government by traders and residents will be made solely through digital means.
Governor Johnson Sakaja told the Kenya Association of Manufacturers that the county will launch Nairobi Pay, a revamped digital payment system, to improve accountability, increase revenue collection, and reduce corruption.
“No payments will be received in cash starting next week. We are digitizing our revenue streams,” he said.
According to Sakaja, the move will help to improve the county’s ease of doing business. He also stated that he will issue a unified business permit soon to put an end to the endless trekking by businesses.
“Everything we ask for will be one licence to allow businesses to focus on business not complying.”
He promised the manufacturers, the majority of whom are based in Nairobi, that he would maintain an open dialogue and consult with them on a regular basis.
“Over the past few years, we have been engaging KAM on enhancing the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry. We want to make Nairobi the manufacturing hub of Africa.”
Sakaja is not the first governor to try to digitize county payment systems. Evans Kidero, the capital’s first governor, attempted but failed to implement digital payments.
Last year, the now-defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Service collaborated with the Kenya Revenue Authority to launch an integrated collection system.
The Nairobi Revenue System (NRS) was created to make it easy for residents and business owners to pay for services such as market fees, county house rent, bus parking fees, land rates, and public health certification fees, among others.
