By Foday Moriba Conteh
In a bid to make the payment of property rates and licenses easy and affordable for residents of Kenema City from their comfort zones using Orange Money effective 2022, Orange Money on Monday 20th December 2021 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kenema District Council during an auspicious event held at the Kenema City Council, Eastern Sierra Leone.
The MoU between Orange Money and the Council will enable residents of Kenema to pay their property rates, licenses and other city rates to the Council using Orange Money.
Speaking on behalf of the Mayor of the Kenema City Council, Councillor Michael described the partnership as not only important but a very timely intervention towards supporting the Council so that residents will pay their property rates, licenses and other city rates to the Council at ease using Orange Money.
He maintained that as a Council they are happy and proud that they have partnered with Orange Money, adding that over the years Orange Sierra Leone has been very supportive to the Council as the company has been paying for their “Council Hour” , which is a radio program.
Councillor Michael revealed that for far too long Council has been deprived in the collection of revenue as most people find it very difficult to access their offices in order to make payment of which he said they are more than happy that Orange Money has come very close to them in order to make their work very easy as residents will no longer move from their houses to go to Council or the bank to pay their rates but rather will make their payments using the Orange Money platform.
The Chief Administrator of the Kenema City Council, Joseph JT Gando stated that the partnership with Orange Money will ease the tension in revenue collection within the district, stating that when he took up office as Chief Administrator his first priority was to take the Council to a digitalized platform further underscoring that they have been working tirelessly to ensure that such is achieved.
He further applauded Orange Money for the partnership with the Council also disclosing how the company has been very supportive to the Council in many aspects, like providing WiFi internet, mobile phones and paying for their radio hour.
Joseph JT Gando further noted that the partnership will help them minimize or even eradicate fraud in revenue collection within the district. He continued that the money collected will be in the Orange money wallet for two weeks before transferring it to the Council’s bank account as their number is a private number that will be linked to the Council’s main account.
In his statement, the CEO for Orange Money, David Mansaray, stated that he is very excited over the signing of the MoU with the Kenema City Council.
He assured the Kenema City Council that they have chosen the right path because the world is now moving towards digitalization, noting that they will help the Kenema City Council in their revenue mobilization. He said the partnership will ease the burden on the tax payers, boost transparency and went on to thank the Orange staff and the Kenema City Council staff for their efforts in actualizing their dream.
David Mansaray noted that it is their responsibility to support the budget of the Council to achieve its objectives. He added that they have agents all over who will be deployed to support all forms of collection at any given point or time.
He revealed that Orange Money is going to provide the Council with reports that will support the financial team within the Council and will also help to know how much was collected, who collected what and reconcile all what had been collected in their bank account.
The CEO added that another form of support they are going to give to Council is communication, which ,according to him, will help residents of Kenema to know that they have established a relationship with the Kenema City Council and also help the people of Kenema understand that they need to pay all those taxes and that they are going to support the Council in that endeavor.
Closing the event was the official signing of the Memorandum of Understanding by the Chief Executive Officer of Orange Money, David Mansaray and the Chief Administrator of the Kenema City Council, Joseph JT Gando.
