Nakuru County to collaborate with Defense University in revenue collection

Sep 14, 2023 - 21:57

Governor Susan Kihika flanked by her Cabinet receives a delegation from the National Defense University led by Vice Chancellor Maj Gen Said Farah, when they made a courtesy call at her Nakuru office.

Nakuru,

Thursday, September 14, 2023

KNA by Anne Sabuni

The National Defense University has developed a curriculum for training County Officers in revenue collection, in a bid to boost attainment of own source revenue targets by the devolved units.

Vice Chancellor of the National Defense University, Kenya Maj Gen Said M. Farah, has said that the Nakuru based University was ready to roll-out the programmes to County Government officers in a bid to maximize collection at the grassroots.

Maj. Farah, while extending an invitation to Nakuru County Governor Susan Kihika to plug into the programme, noted that the newly commissioned university had personnel who were ready to train county officers in various fields including revenue collection.

He challenged the County Government to leverage on the expertise of the university to surmount some of the challenges as it seeks to improve service delivery.

Governor Kihika, while acknowledging the missed revenue targets, noted that the county would also partner with the institution to enhance delivery of better health services.

“We will constitute a team from the county to work with NDU in concretizing on areas of collaboration, which may include the training of county revenue collection and enforcement teams as well as in tree planting in line with County Climate Change Policy,” she noted.

Kihika noted that the University was also better placed to help mitigate and respond to disasters, while seeking collaboration in building capacity for disaster response, soon to be launched school feeding programme and road construction.

Nakuru County has lagged behind in revenue collection, with finance experts estimating a Sh2 billion missed revenue collection. The County has projected to hit the Sh3.25 Billion Own Source Revenue Collection this year with Facility Improvement Fund expected to net the highest.

The County managed to net 14 percent of local collections at Sh456.8 million in the first quarter, this year, with experts calling for strengthened internal audit systems and digitization of Revenue Collection processes to seal loopholes.

Courtesy; KNA