NMS launches new payment short code
Nairobi residents will soon start using a new payment platform to pay for various services offered by the county.
This comes after the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) announced a new unified payment short code for use by the residents going forward.
The new USSD code *647# will replace the *235# that has been in use since June last year when Nairobi County government parted ways with JamboPay.
Services that will be accessible to city residents as part of the Nairobi Revenue Service online platform include parking, business permit, land rates, property management and market bill management, among others.
“Nairobi County is now unified under *647#. Dial and access a one stop platform for all your service delivery needs ranging from property management, land rates payments, market fees payments and parking fees payments,” read the advert in local dailies.
This now marks the last bit of migration of revenue collection from City Hall to NMS through the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
Early July, the taxman announced that it was rolling out in phases, a new revenue collection system for all key revenue streams in Nairobi.
KRA pointed out that the new system, Nairobi County Revenue System (NRS), would incorporate features such as integrated customer touch points including USSD, mobile app and web portal offer online services and simplified customer interfaces to cater for different demographics.
It will also have an inbuilt payment system that enables a customer to make payments on the system through various payments methods including mobile money, cards and bank transfers.
The system had been under development by an in-house development team at KRA since March and will replace the use of Local Authority Integrated Financial Operations Management System (Laifoms) for revenue collection at the county.
City Hall currently relies on Laifoms as the main system for revenue reporting since it parted ways with JamboPay June last year, the *235# USSD, RevenueSure & FleetFix for seasonal parking services and e-Development permit system, a cloud based system used by the urban planning sector, for revenue collection.
In March, KRA was appointed as the principal agent for overall collection of all county revenue replacing National Bank which had been collecting revenue on behalf of City Hall after Jambopay’s contract ended in June, 2019.
That same month, the taxman introduced new bank accounts to be used for revenue collection in the capital replacing accounts that had been in use by City Hall.
Between March and June, KRA managed to collect a paltry Sh1.9 billion in the four months, representing a drop of Sh1.6 billion during a similar period in the financial year ended June 30, 2019 where JamboPay collected Sh3.5 billion.
The state agency collected Sh495.4 million in the month of March, Sh368.8 million the following month, in May Sh412.1 million was collected and in June, Sh588.8 million was realised.