Sakaja beats Kidero-era revenue record with Sh12.8 billion income
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja during an interview at his office in Nairobi on April 26, 2024.
The Nairobi City County government has recorded a 20 per cent increase in revenue, after collecting a total of Sh12.8 billion in the 2023/2024 financial year, beating previous revenue collection records.
This is the highest revenue collection by City Hall, the closest being Sh12.1 billion in 2015/2016 during the administration of former Governor Evans Kidero.
City Hall collected Sh10.6 billion in 2022/23 Sh8.9 billion in 2021/22 and Sh9.7 billion in 2020/21.
Last year, land rates generated the highest of the total revenues at Sh3.4 billion, followed by individual business permits at Sh2.3 billion and parking fees at Sh1.9 billion.
Others include building permits (Sh1.23 billion), hospitals (Sh1 billion), billboards and advertisements (Sh661 million), markets (Sh214 million), house rentals (Sh203 million), fire inspection certificates (Sh58 million), food handlers certificates (Sh106 million), other income (Sh839 million), liquor board revenue (Sh270 million) and Nairobi Funeral Home (Sh26 million).
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja attributed the increase in revenue collection to the digitisation of its revenue streams.
"We made a deliberate effort to digitise our revenue collection. When you have a no cash policy and everything comes directly into our system, to our banks and the county revenue fund, then you find that a lot of wastage and pilferage is reduced," Mr Sakaja said.
Revenue collection function
Mr Sakaja said the ongoing protests were disrupting the county government's revenue collection function.
"There are days that we went as low as Sh10 million, a week where we would be collecting at least Sh85 million per day and those are the resources that served the people of Nairobi. I want to thank our people," he said.
The county government is currently targeting Sh20 billion in own-source revenue to fund its Sh43.5 billion budget.
Nairobi County CEC for Finance Charles Kerich said the county is tapping into its revenue mechanism to meet the revenue target.
“To this end, the County will operationalise its own revenue authority (Nairobi City County Revenue Authority) in order to address the structural and administrative reforms necessary to achieve the set revenue targets. The County also introduced a customer care centre where Nairobians are conveniently able to enquire and pay for the services,” Mr Kerich said.
“On expenditure, the County will undertake reforms to enhance prudent management of the available resources to reduce expenditure on non-core activities and create space for development expenditures,” he added.
The county government has also announced plans to regularise developments in Nairobi to meet revenue targets. Regularisation is the process of approving buildings whose building plans were not originally approved by the county government before construction began.
City Hall has announced plans to enact the Sectional Properties Act of 2021, which will require Nairobi residents who own apartments within blocks and those who share common areas within apartments to pay land rates.
