- Safaricom and Nairobi City County have signed a partnership to digitise the county’s services and operations.
- Under the partnership, Safaricom will develop and support the “My Nairobi App” as part of the “My Nairobi” hub that provides digital services and citizen engagement.
- The platform offers a one-stop shop for businesses in the County where residents, and visitors, can access services with multiple functionalities including making payments.
Safaricom and Nairobi City County have signed a partnership to digitise the county’s services and operations. Under the partnership, Safaricom will develop and support the “My Nairobi App” as part of the “My Nairobi” hub that provides digital services and citizen engagement.
“This My Nairobi Hub will enable us to offer better services to the people of Nairobi. It offers a one-stop shop for businesses in the County where residents, and visitors, can access services with multiple functionalities including making payments. Residents of Nairobi should expect our partnership with Safaricom to usher in a better experience not only in revenue aspects but real-time communication with internal county government sectors,” said the Governor of Nairobi County, Sakaja Johnson.
The “My Nairobi” hub will also be available through other digital channels including on the M-PESA Super App, a website and through a USSD shortcode for feature phone users. The hub will also include an engagement channel known as “Bonga na Sakaja” which will enable Nairobi residents to engage with the county and share feedback towards improvement of county services.
“Digitisation and technology have great potential to transform county Services providing citizens with increased convenience and local governments with more efficient operations and increased revenue collection. We are delighted to partner with Nairobi City County to develop the ‘My Nairobi App’ and to digitise their services and operations which will see increased service delivery at an affordable cost,” said Peter Ndegwa, CEO – Safaricom.
In addition to the “My Nairobi” hub, Safaricom will support the county to design digital channels, integrate county backend services, and to develop a payment gateway and infrastructure to ensure high availability of services.
Safaricom will also provide the county with calling and data solutions including a “closed user group” that provides discounted rates for calls between employees. Other solutions to be provided include revenue collection, parking management solutions, and green credits through Digifarm.
The partnership will also see the county benefit from solutions to provide healthcare to low-income residents and better integration with its other partners such as Kenya Medical Supplies Authority.
Other solutions in the partnerships include smart water systems under the smart city initiative, WiFi hotspots in low-income settlements and around bus stops, an Integrated Traffic and Parking Management Solution and a Disaster Recovery Site for the county.
The partnership will run over the next two years with Safaricom providing the “My Nairobi Hub” and other digital solutions as a value add to the county, at no cost.
In 2021, a new revenue collection platform for Nairobi City County Government was operationalized . The system, Nairobi Revenue System (NRS), was an initiative of the National Government, in collaboration with the Nairobi Metropolitan Services and the Kenya Revenue Authority, aimed at having an integrated single revenue collection system. NRS’s design can be customized to suit other Counties’ specific revenue collection needs.
It is estimated that Nairobi County collects $14 million annually.
Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and with annual revenues of close to $2.5 billion as at March 2022. Safaricom provides connectivity through wide range of technology, 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G in aggregate covering over 99 percent of Kenya’s population.
The company runs the world’s largest mobile payment system and Africa’s largest Fintech, M-PESA, the world’s first mobile money transfer system. By empowering over 30 million customers to transact, save or borrow money through their mobile phone, M-PESA has driven financial inclusion in Kenya to more than 84 percent of the adult population from a low of 25 percent and generated over $920 million in revenue as at Full Year 2022.
