Government netting “nearly” Kes1Billion in daily revenue from e-Citizen’s Paybill payments portal 222222 – CS Owalo

The Kenyan government now collects close to Kes1Billion in daily revenue up from Kes60million through the single digital payments platform Paybill number 222222.

Speaking Sunday, January 7 at a local Television nightly show, ICT Cabinet secretary Eliud Owalo confirmrd that the onboarding of all payment services to the platform has ensured that about 12,642 government services can now be accessed and channelled digitally to the account.

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The William Ruto – led administration had last year directed all ministries, counties, departments and agencies to ensure that payments are migrated to the new Paybill number, onto the e-Citizen online platform.

e-Citizen is a platform that allows Kenyans to access government services such as the renewal of driving licenses, application of passports and business registration services.

Paybill is a cash collection service that allows an organization to collect money on a regular basis from their customers through Safaricom’s M-PESA. It is an M-PESA mode of collecting funds. Payments are customer-initiated, and the receiving organization may have a unique identifier i.e., account number.

It is a directive issued in July 2023 whose discerning was that billions of shillings individual public entities collect, would be paid to the Treasury through a Paybill gazetted in December 2022 as opposed to separate accounts.

It has also seen all other payment platforms shut down as a result. The directive further required all public accounting officers in State departments countrywide to take the sole responsibility to ensure current Paybills are terminated and payments channelled accordingly.

The move is essentially meant to address wastage, theft and leakages, leading to the rampant loss of public funds.

The gazette notice by the Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u said the digital payments platform is integrated with all available electronic payments’ platforms including mobile telephone payment services.