Kisumu, Kenya 18 October 2019 – Kisumu County is eager to implement a new revenue analysis tool developed by UN-Habitat aimed at enhancing the devolved unit’s financial status.

At a meeting with UN-Habitat officials, the County Chief Financial Officer Mr. Eric Orangi, who chaired the meeting, expressed his appreciation of the report and validated the accuracy and relevance of the Rapid Own Source Revenue Analysis (ROSRA) tool. He also expressed his gratitude for the honesty and transparency demonstrated by the UN-Habitat team.

The tool seeks to provide decision makers with actionable recommendations on how to improve the OSR system so that it is more effective, efficient and equitable. The analysis was carried out in close collaboration with the Kisumu Revenue Department.

The ROSRA tool estimated the full Own Source Revenue (OSR) potential of Kisumu and dissected the tax gap into its component parts showcasing the contribution of different factors to the overall gap. The findings from the tool therefore allow decision makers to prioritize interventions and focus on the key impediments to optimizing the OSR system.

Also attending the meeting were various County officials from the revenue department – John Ngere, Jacob Odhiambo, Raphael Otieno, Nick Koguyo and Abeid Ngore; and representatives  from Strathmore University and Collections Africa Ltd who were contracted by the county to assist with the revenue collection.

Marco Kamiya, the Coordinator of the Urban Economy and Finance Branch said, “If this is successful in Kisumu, it will be replicated in other Counties and shared with other subnational governments during the Africities conference in 2021.” (Africities is the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa’s flagship pan-African event that that will take place in Kisumu)

This initiative is implemented by the Urban Economy and Finance Branch at UN-Habitat, which works globally on Municipal Finance, Local Economic Development and Youth and is currently launching several similar projects on own source revenue maximization in other local governments around the world. 

UN-Habitat’s technical team on urban economy and municipal finance will continue working with Kisumu County Government on own source revenue, assisting with the design of local infrastructure finance, and supporting the implementation of the tool’s recommendations