City Hall stares at financial crisis as JamboPay exits

What you need to know:

  • City Hall has not yet announced its new revenue collection system to replace JamboPay.
  • Many city residents relied on eJijiPay to pay various levies, especially daily parking fees and licence renewals.
  • App firm says it collected on average between Sh80m to Sh100m daily for the city.

Nairobi County government could be plunged into a financial crisis starting Monday with payment services offered by JamboPay set to be shutdown.

This could see City Hall lose up to Sh100 million daily as it looks for another system for its 136 revenue streams.

The contract between Kenyan tech firm Web Tribe Limited and City Hall to use eJijiPay app ends on Sunday, April 7, meaning that the county residents will have no platform to pay levies.

The firm was contracted by the county government in 2014 to supply, implement and maintain an automated revenue collection and payments solution for a period of five years.

DAILY REVENUE

Web Tribe Chief Executive Officer Danson Muchemi said that they will disable the eJijipay platform on April 7.

Mr Muchemi said that the app collected on average between Sh80 million to Sh100 million daily. In March alone, Sh1.5 billion was paid through the system.

On January 7, 2019 Mr Muchemi informed City Hall stating they will not seek to renew the contract with the county government, citing need to shield firm from political meddling.

“We have continued receiving bad publicity from the county government despite the fact that we have been in business together for five years,” said Mr Muchemi.

'POLITICAL MEDDLING'

Last month, while appearing before a Nairobi County Assembly oversight committee, he laid bare their frustrations since the election of Mike Sonko, saying political interference, mistrust and negative publicity as some of the major factors that have pushed them out of City Hall.

In the January letter, Mr Muchemi, said that they were ready to hand over its system to City Hall, ahead of the expiry of their contract while recommending the setting up of a joint transition team to oversee the handover.

But Mr Muchemi decried the slow pace adopted by the county in the planned migration of their systems to City Hall, a process the firm’s manager said needed a minimum of two weeks.

The firm now wants the county government to inform JamboPay partners, including banks and telecommunication firms, their contract is ending.

JamboPay is also demanding payment of Sh60 million in outstanding invoices.