By John Sheka Tarawalie
In a bid to make the payment of property rates and licenses easy and affordable from their comfort zones using Orange Money effective 2022 for residents of Kenema City, Orange Money on Monday 20th December 2021 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kenema City Council at the Council’s Auditorium.
The MoU between Orange Money and the Kenema City Council will enable residents of Kenema to pay their property rates, licenses and other city rates to the Kenema City Council using Orange Money.
Representing the Mayor of the Kenema City Council, Councilor Michael said as a Council they are happy and proud that that are going into partnership with Orange Money. Noting that Orange Money pays their Council hour radio program. He added that the Council has been deprived in the collection of revenue, adding that it is very good to see that Orange is coming very close to them to be in partnership. He furthered that it will be a very easy task to the Council because people will no longer move from their houses to go to Council or the bank to pay their money.
The Chief Administrator of the Kenema City Council, Joseph JT Gando said when he took up office his first priority is to take the Council to a digitalized Council. He noted that Orange Sierra Leone have been supporting the Council in many aspects, like providing WiFi internet, mobile phones and radio hour. Noting that partnering with Orange will ease the tension in the revenue collection. He revealed that the money collected will be in the Orange money wallet for two weeks before transferring it to the Council’s bank account. He further noted that the partnership will help them minimize or even eradicate fraud in the revenue collection. The CA further revealed that that the number they will be using for the transactions will be a private number that will be linked with the Council’s main account.
In his statement, the CEO for Orange Money David Mansaray said he is excited to be signing a MoU with the Kenema City Council, noting that they will make ensure that the partnership will be a successful one. He expressed great enthusiasm about the partnership.
The CEO Orange Money noted that it gives him confidence that the partnership or the marriage that they are establishing is going to last forever. He noted that it is their responsibility to support the budget of the Council to achieve their objectives. He added that have agents all over and that the agents will be deployed to support all forms of collection at any given point or time, noting that the partnership is going to ensure they achieve that. He revealed that Orange Money is going to provide the Council with reports that will support the finance team within the Council. And it will also help to know how much was collected, who collected what and can reconcile all those collections to their bank account.
He added that another form of support that they are going to give to Council is on communication, were they will help citizens 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.
