Nairobi revenue platform to be rolled out in phases

The newly launched revenue collection platform for Nairobi will be rolled out in phases.

The Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) said the first service that is currently accessible through the short code *647#, which went live this week, is for parking.

This comes after Nairobi residents complained that they could not access other options in the new platform except for parking services.

However, NMS director of strategic communications, Tony Mbarine said their focus is on parking services this week before embarking on the next service until all are accessible.

He said the phased rollout has been made deliberately to avoid teething challenges such as system crash or downtime that occurs when many people try to use a system at the same time.

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.

“We are finishing with the parking services this week before we move on to the next service. We have not gone completely out as we wanted to fix any issue that could arise. Once parking services is fully functional, we will launch a sensitisation campaign,” said Mr Mbarine.

The director pointed out that the new platform will, in the meantime, cover only the functions transferred but over time, it will cover all the services in Nairobi County government.

The *235# short code, which has been in use since June last year when Nairobi County government parted ways with JamboPay, will be completely phased out.

“All we were doing is to make Nairobi residents aware that for the four functions transferred to NMS, we have asked Kenya Revenue Authority to collect the revenue through this platform. The old short code *235# will gradually be phased out to be replaced with *647#,” said Mr Mbarine.