The Elgeyo Marakwet County in partnership with Safaricom has launched a revenue management system that will not only boost revenue collection but also ease the payment of the same in the county.
Speaking during the launch in Iten, Governor Wisley Rotich said from now on, there will be no cash payment saying all revenue will be paid online via *428# adding that both the government and wananchi will be able to see how much the county is collecting.
The governor said most of the revenue collected through cash was being lost saying the system will be able to seal such loopholes where some revenue officers were collecting but not remitting all the funds collected.
“With the current system, we will be able to know how much a revenue officer has collected in a day in addition to knowing how much the county is collecting in a day,” he said.
Governor Rotich said with the introduction of online system, residents will no longer be required to line up at the county offices to get business permits saying as long as one has paid, they will be able to generate and print their permits.
He noted that the information from revenue collection will be used for decision making as it will enable the county to know which crop or business was bringing in more revenue and the interventions to be taken to improve the same.
Rotich continued that the county will also be able to know how much a business was paying in terms of revenue and which was employing the youths so that it can receive incentives from the county government.
The governor disclosed that the county had so far collected Sh114 million as own revenue.
Cynthia Kropac from Safaricom said the system will be able to collect revenue from all sources in the county thus enabling the county to improve in delivery of services.
By Alice Wanjiru
