Laikipia County has surpassed the Sh 1 billion mark on its own source revenue collection since the advent of devolution.
The county recorded Sh1.13 billion for the just-ended financial year 2022/2023, an increase of Sh229.5 million compared to the previous 2021/2022 financial year in which they had collected Sh 903.89 million during former governor Ndiritu Muriithi’s tenure.
“We were able to collect Sh 1.13 billion surpassing last year’s Sh 903 billion. We take this opportunity to thank residents for their due diligence in contributing to their development,” said the chief officer.
Laikipia County Chief Officer in charge of finance Daniel Ngumi said that they had set a target of Sh1.297 billion which they missed by a whisker.
Ngumi attributed the achievement to digitization of revenue collection avenues which had helped them track taxes payment in a timely manner.
He added that going cashless on revenue payment among residents was a major boost to their exemplary revenue collection which had sealed leakages.
The chief officer said that, with high revenue collection, their target areas of improvement would be health care, infrastructure development, and provision of agricultural inputs.
“First, the priority areas are hospitals by making sure hospitals have the equipment they need and prevent people going outside Laikipia to seek services, other services include provision of water aimed at making sure revenue collected is used prudently,” revealed Ngumi.
At the same time, Ngumi revealed that they had been able to reduce the county’s pending bills by paying about Sh40 million monthly in a bid to offset Sh1.2 billion debt.
The Chief Officer revealed the county targets to collect about Sh1.475 Billion for the financial year 2023/2024.
Laikipia County finance board Chief Executive Officer Kamunya Kalundo said that revenue collection of 87 percent across different sectors was remarkable since it was a tough year that had a myriad of activities including elections which had depressed the economy.
The CEO however pointed out that revenue collection had an equal measure of challenges that needed to be addressed to avoid losses on its own source revenue collection.
He revealed that to hit the Sh 1.475 billion target, Laikipia Governor Joshua Irungu’s administration eyes imposing property taxes for instance land rates.
The CEO noted that they would not burden residents with more taxes as compared to what they are already remitting.
Meanwhile, the county had collected Sh 518.099 as local revenue, Sh 464.815 million from hospitals, sh 139 million from CILOR(Cash in Lieu of Rations) and Sh 10.4 million from VTCs(Vocational Training Centres) respectively totaling Sh 1.32 billion across all the revenue-generating sectors in the county.
By Muturi Mwangi
