Sodexo Kenya founder Neil Ribeiro. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU
Neil Ribeiro had just sold off his entire stake in an online
taxi-hailing business when the government declared a new incentive
enabling employers to buy employees lunch tax-free.
Having
spent time during his university studies in America where he graduated
with bachelor of science degree in health information management
systems, Mr Ribeiro saw an opportunity to design a fool-proof mobile app
for employers.
He invested part of the cash from the
taxi business in the app’s development that incorporated a cashless
payment system and a wallet.
Mr Ribeiro wanted to cash
in on the fact that while companies loved the idea of enjoying tax
breaks for providing their employees meals, many were unwilling to
invest in development of an inhouse cafeteria.
On November 2016, Sodexo Kenya was born with Mr Ribeiro starting by recruiting hotels and companies for the venture.
“Most
hotel operators were unwilling to take up my offer and I had to
guarantee them payments via hefty deposits in case employers defaulted,”
he recalls.
In his trial phase, Mr Ribeiro worked with
three firms, which reported improved productivity and reduced
absenteeism due to illness after signing onto the lunch platform.
To
qualify for the tax break, companies are required to allocate Sh4,000
to each employee monthly for meals. Sodexo provides a list of
participating restaurants.
“No employee can abuse the
facility since all activities are monitored realtime — facilities
visited, time, meals eaten as well as amount of money paid,” he said.
Mr
Ribeiro also received rights from the French-based firm Sodexo,
allowing him to localise the mealtime voucher online platform.
“Employers
can also specify the mealtimes when the e-voucher can be used once a
day and specific places as well as amount allowed for each daily meal.
It is untransferable,” he added.
During
a two-month pilot phase the firm generated an income of Sh500,000 from
his six clients. Seeing that the business had good prospects, Mr Ribeiro
brought in five people to handle sales. The number of employees has
now doubled as the business has expanded to Kisii and Mombasa.
The
app has so far enrolled 230 eateries of various classes. The meals are
in three categories — traditional meals go for Sh200 to Sh300, healthy
meals are priced at Sh150 and variety brand costs Sh400.
Sodexo
has since introduced a new service dubbed M-tuza where employers can
reward employees via vouchers allowing them to shop at local retail
chains.
“This means employees must spend their money to buy shoes, foodstuffs or clothes but cannot access the money,” he said.
“Lunch
business is a Sh2.4 billion annually, which if taken seriously could
generate new jobs and businesses while boosting productivity for
participating firms.”
The 2015 Finance Act that
allowed employers to spend Sh48,000 annually on every employee’s lunch
as tax-free income is a voluntary scheme that is slowly gaining traction
among corporate companies.
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