City Hall is seeking to partner with Sidian Bank Limited to provide revenue collection services through a new system expected to generate billions of shillings in taxes.
The proposed partnership comes months after the county government quietly moved its primary banking operations to Sidian Bank, effectively placing the lender at the centre of Nairobi’s financial ecosystem.
The latest arrangement now seeks to deepen the relationship beyond banking into the core function of revenue collection and management.
Sidian Bank logo.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Documents tabled before the Nairobi City County Assembly budget committee indicate that the partnership will also cover the management of the Facility Improvement Fund (FIF) for county hospitals as well as donor funds.
“The budget committee has noted that the County government is desirous of partnering with Sidian Bank for the provision of revenue collection and revenue management systems and management of FIF by providing ledger fee free account integrated with mobile payment provisions,” read the budget committee report.
City Hall will also open project accounts with the bank where donor funds will be channeled, with the accounts structured to operate without ledger fees, a detail that officials say is aimed at reducing operational costs.
The assembly report on the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the bank and the county executive further notes that the partnership will see the commercial bank develop a unified digital system to modernise how Nairobi collects billions in annual revenues; from parking fees and business permits to land rates.
The arrangement would see Sidian Bank provide both the technological infrastructure and financial rails to streamline payments, seal leakages and improve real-time reporting, effectively placing the bank at the heart of the county’s revenue architecture.
“The County plans to partner with the bank in providing revenue collection and revenue repayment for elimination of cash handling by revenue officers, real-time value and data collection made and management of Facility Improvement Fund,” reads the assembly report.
The proposed system is expected to integrate mobile payments and digital channels, reducing reliance on manual processes that have long been blamed for inefficiencies and revenue losses.
Sidian Bank will also extend additional financial services under the arrangement, including advancing cash-backed car and mortgage facilities to eligible County Executive Committee Members as well as offering credit facilities to the county government and its staff.
It is not clear how much Sidian Bank Limited will charge in service fees under the proposed arrangement. The assembly report remains silent on the cost structure, revenue-sharing terms and any transaction charges.
Previous service providers such as JamboPay, which managed Nairobi’s revenue collection between 2014 and 2019, charged a commission of about 4.5 percent on total revenue collected, a rate that in one financial year saw more than Sh500 million deducted from county collections.
The contract was later terminated following disputes over compliance and system performance. The absence of clarity on the fee structure in the proposed deal with Sidian Bank Limited is likely to raise fresh concerns over the potential cost of outsourcing revenue collection.
The move also comes against the backdrop of longstanding concerns over transparency in Nairobi’s revenue collection systems.
The county government currently uses the Nairobi Revenue Service (NRS), a system developed by the Kenya Revenue Authority, to collect taxes. The system has frequently drawn criticism from ward representatives who have questioned its transparency and accountability.
In 2023, the county assembly constituted a 13-member ad hoc committee to investigate alleged loss of revenue at City Hall. Among its key mandates was to establish the ownership of the Nairobi Revenue Service and propose measures to seal revenue leakages. The committee never tabled its report.
Fresh concerns have also emerged over the Sh13.8 billion in revenue declared by the county government, following claims that external auditors have been denied access to the system for the past two years.
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja delivers his speech during the signing of a cooperation agreement between the national government and the Nairobi City County Government at State House, Nairobi on February 17, 2026.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja attributed the increase in revenue to the introduction of a unified business permit and efforts to seal revenue leakages.
It remains unclear how the proposed partnership with Sidian Bank will interact with the existing Nairobi Revenue Service system, or whether it will replace it altogether.
The proposed deal with Sidian Bank is likely to intensify scrutiny over who controls Nairobi’s revenue and whether the new arrangement will finally bring transparency or further entrench the mystery.
