Over 400,000 Kenyans now on eCitizen platform

Over 400,000 Kenyans have registered on the eCitizen payment platform (www.eCitizen.go.ke) and with over 8,000 transactions have been made averaging to a total revenue collection of about Kshs 10 million daily.

This was announced by the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury, Henry Rotich as he presented the 2015/2016 Budget in Parliament. Hon. Rotich presented a 2.1 trillion Kenyan shillings budget which is a 17 per cent increase from that of the fiscal year 2014/2015.

The Government has as well programmed to digitize at least 100 inbound payment service transactions by end of 2015 in order to hasten service delivery, reduce transaction cost and safeguard revenue. Priority areas include; payments for business registration, land transaction services, motor vehicle and additional services under the registration of persons, including, birth and death certificates.

Rotich also stated that they were moving Government services closer to Kenyans through two key initiatives: first the state of the art One-Stop-Shop Investment centre; and second, One-Stop-Shop Service centres, popularly known as Huduma Centres.

“These centres are now making it easier for investors to set up businesses and citizens to access pubic services. Through the Huduma Kenya Program we are delivering more than 35 services under one roof in twenty-three counties. By the end of this financial year, we will have rolled out an additional 23 centres, bringing the total number of Huduma Centres to 46. In FY 2015/16 we shall be expanding to reach all counties. We also intend to harmonise the services provided by eCitizen and by the Huduma Centres to ensure that there is no duplication of services provided to Mwananchi and thereby avoid wastage of scarce Government resources,” he added.

He also added that the Government was as well implementing the Kenya National Electronic Single Window System – the Kenya TradeNet System – to facilitate international trade by reducing delays and attendant transaction costs relating to processing of imports and exports documentation while at the same time maintaining the requisite controls and ensuring efficient revenue collection.

“The declaration module has now been put in place and beginning the first of July 2015, all importers and exporters and other related stakeholders will be required to process their transactions through the system. This will enhance transparency, accountability, governance and competitiveness while at the same time improving revenue collection,” he added.

The Cabinet Secretary as well applauded the ICT initiatives saying that Kenya had continued to receive global recognition including where Kenya was projected by leading economists to be one of the fastest growing economies and where African Development Bank ranked Kenya as number six in Africa in terms of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) while the Ernst & Young’s 2014 Attractiveness Survey indicated that investors see Kenya as one of three regional hub markets in Sub-Saharan Africa.