Kwale County Automates Revenue Collection With M-PESA

Kwale County has partnered with Safaricom to roll out cashless payments for its 700,000 citizens. The partnership will see the County accept payment for all services it offers including market fees, cess, and parking levies through M-PESA. The solution will be available through the dedicated PayBill number 338500.

“This partnership will enable Kwale County to serve its citizens more efficiently by easing the process of making payments. We are also empowering customers to make payments from wherever they are and therefore enabling the County to offer its services remotely and save customers the pain of having to travel to the headquarters,” said Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, Chief Financial Services Officer – Safaricom.

The service went live in February 2019 and sees Kwale become the seventeenth devolved unit to adopt and fully integrate cashless payments through M-PESA. In addition to providing an efficient payment channel, the county is also looking to increase revenue collection by automating the collection and through the ability to make payments from wherever the customer is.

“We are happy to partner with Safaricom to provide citizens with a more convenient way to access our services. This development will boost Kwale County in our ambition to increase the efficiency and accountability of our service delivery,” said Amos Onduko, Kwale County Executive Committee Member for Revenue.

According to a report by the GSMA, citizens find benefit in paying for government services through M-PESA as it can reduce costs by more than 75 per cent. This is backed by data from the Central Bank of Kenya, which shows that the mobile phone was the most preferred mode of cashless payment in the country in December 2018, accounting for almost nine of every ten such payments.