NTSA system hitch stalls used car sales

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The Director General of the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA), George Njao at a past event on November 21, 2023. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NMG
     

Second-hand car dealers are grappling with strained cash flow amid hitches in making logbook transfers on the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) portal after the agency transferred systems to eCitizen.

The dealers say they have been unable to transfer logbooks or make registrations, hitches that have hurt their cash flow due to stalled processing of payments from banks for cars bought through asset financing.

Nearly 90 percent of second-hand car buyers make purchases through asset financing, with bank loans providing between 60 percent to 80 percent of the car value.

NTSA migrated its Transport Integrated Management System (Tims) portal to eCitizen last month, in line with a government directive to have payments for all State services made on the same platform.

Dealers say that the system has been down most of the time since its migration to eCitizen, stalling efforts to transfer logbooks which are critical for banks to pay dealers for the cars whose purchases have been significantly covered via bank loans.

“We have been stuck since they migrated the system last month. We cannot make logbook transfers and registrations and NTSA is not saying anything about it,” Mr Charles Munyori, Secretary General of the Kenya Auto Bazaar Association —a lobby for second-hand car dealers said on Wednesday.

Logbooks are arguably the most critical document that banks ask for in order to authorise the release of the funds, highlighting why the hitches are threatening to cripple second-hand car dealers. Besides banks, customers also rely on loans from micro-financiers and saccos to fund the acquisition of second-hand cars.

Kenyans have increasingly turned to financing for the purchase of cars amid depleted spending power occasioned by the high cost of living.

NTSA Director-General George Njao had not responded on the timelines by which the hitches would have been resolved and restore services on TIMS to normalcy.

Transactions such as applications and transfer of logbooks are done via NTSA’s Tims. But the platform has been on and off since the firm transferred systems to eCitizen.

“These (hitches in making logbook transfers) have hit us because most of our customers buy units through asset financing. We are stuck with units where customers have paid deposits but banks are yet to complete the payments,” Antony Aleri of CarMax East Africa added.

NTSA, like other State agencies, had up to the end of last year to transfer systems to the eCitizen. The move is part of sealing revenue leakages associated with the manual systems for payment of thousands of State services. The cost of transferring a log book for second-hand cars ranges between Sh2,210 to Sh6,465 depending on the engine capacity of the vehicle.

NTSA charges Sh6,465 for logbook transfer for a vehicle whose engine capacity is higher than 3,000cc while transfers for those of 1,000cc and below go for Sh2,210.

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