Politics and policy
City Hall workers will still accept cash payments for parking as it
monitors its e-payment system this week. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION
MEDIA GROUP
NATION MEDIA GROUP
By KIARIE NJOROGE
In Summary
City Hall has made a U-turn on the complete ban of
cash payments for parking which was supposed to begin today and will now
run a parallel billing system. Motorists will still be allowed to pay
their parking fee by cash to county parking attendants as City Hall
monitors the workings of the cashless system this week.
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Deputy Governor Jonathan Mueke said they would observe the
new system for one week and if it works smoothly, a date would be set
from which cash payments would no longer be allowed.
“We’re trying to make sure it’s efficient and
convenient for our customers; so we’ll see how it’s working and make
adjustments accordingly,” he said. “This is something that has never
been done so you can’t predict the outcome. We have to implement it and
see how it works. If it goes as well as the pilot has gone, we’ll stop
printing tickets.”
The county is keen to have the system implemented
fully after results from the pilot on Haile Selassie Avenue last week
showed a near doubling of revenues collected. Mr Mueke said that on
average, they had been collecting daily parking for 40-50 of the 78
slots on the road. He said that during the pilot, they collected parking
fees from more than 80 motorists on average daily.
Although he could not project the expected revenue
rise once the system goes live in the whole city, he said it would be as
much as double. The difference is attributed to revenue leaks due to
corrupt attendants.
Nairobi has been grappling with revenue losses due
to a flawed collection system across all its revenue streams, a problem
it hopes to cure with outsourcing of the service. JamboPay has so far
taken over collection of land rates, seasonal parking, single business
permits and rent from county houses on behalf of City Hall.
Eventually, all others county services like market
fees development permits are expected to be cashless and handled by the
financial vendor. However, the question of the excess staff currently
involved in revenue collection remains unanswered although City Hall has
maintained that it’s not looking to retrench.
JamboPay is expected to earn Sh540 million every
year for handling the county’s revenue collection and Governor Evans
Kidero will be hard pressed to justify continuing to pay the excess
workers when the services they used to provide have been outsourced.
The county’s monthly wage bill is more than Sh1
billion and accounts for nearly half of the budget leaving little for
development. The move to cashless payments has previously failed
elsewhere due to poor preparation and it remains to be seen if City Hall
that is associated with stalled projects can pull off a first one.
The National Transport and Safety Authority had to
shelve plans to have all fare payments on public service vehicles go
cashless from July 1 as many of the sticky points remained unresolved as
the date passed.
Among the issues that City Hall is yet to address
fully is that of availability of agents who will collect cash and load
the money to motorists’ county mobile wallets. Mr Mueke said that 500
agents have been recruited and all that is left is the branding to
identify them.
City Hall expects to collect Sh5 billion this year from parking, making it the biggest revenue earner for Nairobi.
gkiarie@ke.nationmedia.com
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