UDA Nairobi governor aspirant Senator Johnson Sakaja says he will consolidate multiple business licenses into one if elected in the August polls.
Sakaja said the numerous licenses traders are required to acquire are not only slowing down businesses but paving way for corruption as well.
"If you go to any business establishment today, right at the door you will see a big frame with like six, seven sometimes even ten different licenses that they have to comply with," Sakaja said.
"What that does is that it takes away the time of that person to focus on making money to complying and that becomes an avenue for corruption because today somebody comes to inspect whether you have the business permit, tomorrow somebody else comes to inspect whether you have the environmental license, the next day somebody comes to inspect whether you have the fire license," Sakaja said in an interview on KBC.
Businesses are required to have multiple licenses ranging from trade, Nema, PRISK, fire, health, MCSK, advertising signage license and food hygiene, all issued by different statutory bodies.
As a remedy, the Senator said if elected the next Nairobi governor, he will merge all the statutory requirements by the county and national governments and issue only one licence to business establishments.
"We are going to consolidate them so that you pay only once and you can pay even in instalments so that we facilitate you to do business," he said.
"Once you pay the county government, there's only one person who does an inspection," Sakaja added.
He explained that revenue collection in Nairobi has gone down because of the policing aspect of license inspection.
"The minute they come to your place with KRA and GSU, in the Whatsapp group, (traders) tell everybody else and all the shops close."
Sakaja said the single license will have a QR code which the inspecting officer will be able to scan and determine the compliance status of a business establishment.
