Elizabeth Sackey with the new markets and lorry park tolls receipts
THE ACCRA Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has announced plans to introduce a digitised revenue collection system in March to rake in more revenue for the assembly.
The new platform, expected to make payments more convenient, is also aimed at checking revenue leakages, reducing corruption while promoting voluntary compliance and a conducive rate-paying environment.
Mayor of Accra, Elizabeth Sackey, disclosed this when she led a team of officers from the assembly to sensitise traders on the roll-out of new receipts for payment of markets and lorry park tolls in the metropolis.
The new receipts to be issued from tomorrow have holograms in them for easy identification.
Ms. Sackey said the AMA was leveraging on the government’s digitalisation drive to create an innovative solution to increase its internally generated funds and block all revenue leakages while reducing the human element.
She disclosed that about 23 banks have been integrated into the new revenue collection platform to give users the flexibility of payment options adding that “apart from using the banks, ratepayers can equally pay their bills via mobile money on all networks, QR codes, and a USSD code.”
She noted that prior to the introduction of the new revenue collection system in March, all traders and market women in the metropolis would be registered and given special Quick Response (QR) codes to be used for payment of bills from the assembly.
She encouraged the market women and the business community to embrace innovation to bring development to Accra.
Metro Director of Budget, Noble Atsu Ahadzie, emphasised that with the new system, bills and receipts would be sent electronically to rate payers without any human interference.
He added that AMA was rolling out a well-detailed stakeholder engagement plan to ensure that all stakeholders were well-informed ahead of the commencement of the digital revenue collection system.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri