Narok County seeks alternative for Equity Bank’s prepaid smart card

By Macharia Kamau

The Narok County Government is planning to put in place a new electronic revenue collection system for the Maasai Mara Game Reserve. The new facility would replace a similar smart card system the government has been running in partnership with Equity Bank.

The move comes after a June 24 move by the County Government to terminate the partnership with the bank, which it claimed had been experiencing major breakdowns and had not successfully sealed loopholes that had in the past resulted in major revenue losses.

The County Government also said in a statement on Thursday, it has put in place a temporary manual revenue collection system at the reserve as the industry gears up for tourist high season. The County said the manual ticket based system it has in place — as it shops for a new smart system — has features that would guard against revenue leaks throughout the highly lucrative high season.

A substantial fraction of tourism industry earnings come in during the high season that runs from July and October. It usually coincides with wildebeest migration that peaks around October. Mara gets the highest number of visitors during these months.

“This being the start of the tourist high season, the county has made adequate arrangements including provision of security hologrammed tickets to access the game reserve in the interim,” it said.