Nairobi County falls behind revenue target

Nairobi County office block (PHOTO: FILE)

NAIROBI, KENYA: The economic impact of Covid-19 largely contributed to the dismal performance of the Nairobi County own-source revenue collections for the first half of the 2020/21 financial year.

This is even as it emerged that Housing rent, fire inspection certificates, and land rates were the biggest revenue generators for Nairobi County after the revenue streams generated Sh1.3 billion.

According to official data by the county assembly budget and appropriations committee, City Hall was only able to rake in Sh3.9 billion against a target of Sh6.4 billion for the first six months of the financial year ending June 30, 2020.

This means that City Hall was unable to meet its revenue target by a staggering Sh2.5 billion for the months from July to December 2020 despite the city government bringing on board the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to collect revenue on its behalf.

The revenue generated was however a slight increase compared to Sh3.1 billion collected over the same period in the previous 2019/20 financial year.

The data further reveals that Sh466.6 million was generated in the month of July against a target of Sh905.2 million. This represented a four percent drop from a similar month in the previous financial year where Sh485.5 million was collected.

In August, the collection however dropped to Sh454.6 million against a target of Sh909.7 million. It was however a 10 percent increase compared to a similar period in the financial year 2019/2020 where Sh413.7 million was realised.

In September, KRA was able to collect Sh604.7 million against a target of Sh979.7 million. This represented a Sh4 million increase from the previous year’s collection of Sh600.7 million.

Notably, in October, KRA surpassed the target by collecting Sh1.05 billion against a target of Sh1.04 billion. This was more than twice the previous month’s collection of Sh407.4 million.

The collections would however dip in November to Sh502.5 million against a Sh1.12 billion target. The postings for the months were however an improvement from Sh Sh428.5 million generated during a similar month in the previous financial year.

In the month of December, City Hall was able to collect Sh842.8 million against a target of Sh1.4 billion which was an improvement of Sh34 million from the previous financial year.

Finance and Budget committee chairperson Robert Mbatia brought to the fore that the impacts of Covid-19 had slowed down business in the capital translating to poor revenue collections.

KRA was appointed as the principal revenue collector for the Nairobi County government in March 2020 shortly after the implementation of the Deed of Transfer of functions between City Hall and the National Government.