The Municipal Coordinating Director, Mr Emmanuel Baisie, told the Ghanaian Times on Tuesday that property rate revenue rose from GH¢3, 504,222 to GH¢12, 355,844 in 2024.
He said the average revenue performance for property rate since 2019 to 2023 was GH¢3, 504,222, adding that the new cashless software system had been able to improve revenue collection on property rate.
“Over these five years, our highest for a singular year was in 2022 which was around GH¢5m and if you compare it to the 2024 collected revenue, it over 100 per cent increment performance as a result of the cashless system we started in 2024,” Mr Baisie stated.
He said since the creation of the Assembly, it had not recorded such a huge growth, but because of the cashless system “We are doing great.”
Mr Baisie said there were increases in other revenue lines of the Assembly such as the Internally Generated Fund (IGF).
The Municipal Coordinating Director stated that the IGF of the Assembly increased from GH¢14, 747, 648 in 2023 to GH¢25,398,140 in 2024.
He stated that Korle Klottey was one of the first municipalities to secure approval for an “in-house built software” from the Auditor General for property rates collection.
In view of this, he said in 2024 the Assembly rolled out its cashless systems to help the collection of property rate, adding that the software made it easy for residents in the Assembly to pay their property rates and taxes at the comfort of their homes.
“We have gotten approval and certification for the use of our software, which is the game changer, because we have gone cashless with this software, and the results is very encouraging,” Mr Baisie stated.
“It means that no rate payer in 2024 came with physical cash to pay at the assembly level, all payments were made either at the bank, cheques, mobile money, G-money or any other virtual platforms,” he explained.
The Municipal Coordinating Director admitted that initially they had faced the challenge of clients not understanding how the system works, but with the help from the assembly’s field agents these clients had come to accept the payment system as the way to develop the municipality.
To get more property rate revenue generation, Mr Baisie noted that, the assembly had deployed close to 30 field agents into the community to facilitate revenue mobilisation, in terms of helping clients make payments using the software.
He urged property rate payers to always verify the identity of any field agent that came to assist them to pay their taxes through the CityRevSol software.
Highlighting on how the system works, the Municipal Budget Analyst, Mr Ernest Tagoe, noted that the system automatically sent bills to individuals and organisations which were obliged to pay tax and such individuals and organisations could honour their tax obligations electronically.
BY CECILIA YADA LAGBA