Economy

City Hall makes U-turn on cash parking fees billing ban

parking-pic

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

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.

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.

READ: How city motorists will navigate parking under cashless system

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.

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