• New revenue management system to be fully operational by end month.
• Parking attendants to help motorists assist in making payments.
Image: MONICAH MWANGI
The Nairobi county government has been urged to provide more public information about the new revenue management system.
County assembly Finance, Budget and Appropriation committee chairman Robert Mbatia said many people in the wards have no idea how to make payments through the new system.
"Some are aware of the change but do not know how to proceed with payments. I urge the county to focus on publicity on the changes so that we can enter into the new financial year without any pullbacks," he told the Star yesterday.
Mbatia said City Hall is ending its contract with JamboPay and the focus should be on identifying the weaknesses of the new system and fixing them before next month.
"What Nairobi needs is an efficient, fair, convenient and easy revenue system and we are hopeful that the new system will reach this standard," he said.
After being enlightened, on Tuesday morning some motorists paid for their parking without experiencing any major difficulties.
"I paid for my parking at around 7.30am and lthough there was a delay I got the confirmation message within 10 minutes," said Ken Obadi, a motorist.
" I realised yesterday I was using the old USSD code *217# but I got the new one and paid for my parking with no difficulties," said Chris Kamau, another motorist.
There were concerns from motorists who had balances in their e-wallet and the county had not made clear on how they would get the money back.
An e-wallet is an electronic account on JamboPay that allows the customer to disburse funds and pay for goods.
However, JamboPay has already started refunding the money and those affected can dial *805# to get their money back.
The new system started operating on Sunday night and on Monday some motorists were unable to pay their parking fee.
The slow response and traffic came as a result of the county adding security features in the system to protect it from hackers .
Mbatia suggested National Bank of Kenya should liaise without the county to provide a dashboard where officials can see how payments are streaming in.
Finance executive Charles Kerich told the Star that the dashboard is the county's mandate and it will soon be set up.
"At the moment, we don't have it up but our technical team from the IT department are in control. As soon we have the dashboard up it will be easier to see how the revenue is being generated," he said.
“ So far so good. We are seeing progress with the new system and the response from city residents is good.”
On Monday, motorists raised concern about the transaction fee charged to pay for parking saying they were charged Sh23 while before the new system the transaction was Sh8.
Chief officer for Finance Halkano Waqo said they have deployed at least 150 parking attendants within the Central Business District to assist motorists in paying for their parking.
"The process is simple but the parking attendants will offer assistance and help in notifying motorists about the new system," he said.