Top Benefits of Using MPesa to Pay for Government Services

The term ‘government services’ conjures images of constantly waiting in long queues and enduring less than satisfactory service. These services are mandatory for citizens and so at one time or the other, we have all found ourselves in this uncomfortable situation. Granted, government services have greatly improved over the last decade with a call to reduce corruption and give citizens value for their taxes. 2015 has seen that value grow to new heights, with the introduction of eCitizen.

The eCitizen portal is an online portal that seeks to make access to government services more convenient for citizens. The portal is managed by the ICT Authority of Kenya and was the brainchild of the Ministry of Finance. These services can be conveniently paid for electronically. The government has acquired M-Pesa PayBill number 206206 specifically for there services.

Some of the services available on the portal include: business registration, notification of marriage, commissioning of affidavits, renewal of driving licence, passport application and land rent clearance certificate. More services are to be added soon including: birth and death certificates issuance, application for Kenyan visa and land rent clearance certificate.

Safaricom has been a pioneer in the mobile money with the innovation that is MPesa. MPesa has revolutionized the way goods and services are paid for in the country and has inspired other markets to take up similar services. Lipa na MPesa has been one of the services that Safaricom introduced that took specifically into account the number of customers that use MPesa to pay for goods and services. It only makes sense that MPesa would be the most convenient method available to pay for government services.

The top benefits of paying for government services via M-Pesa include:

1. Eradication of long queues

There is no longer a need to make long queues to access and pay for government services. You can simply pay using MPesa which is convenient and time saving as you can do so from wherever you are.

2. Convenience of cashless payment

Customers no longer need to carry cash with them or deposit in bank accounts to present bank slips to access government services. They can simply use the money in their M-Pesa account and access these services without any challenges.

3. Eradication of corruption

The cost of the government services on eCitizen are transparent and remain the same. This sometimes did not happen when having to deal with long queues and government officials. The transparency of the service means that there are no additional hidden costs or charges that could have been blamed on corruption. This is further aided by payment through the MPesa PayBill number which means that citizens need not have unnecessary interaction.

4.Traceable transactions

Payment via MPesa means that it’s easy to follow the paper trail when it comes to payments. Customers can see their billing for various government services and this as well as the followup via email makes staying on top of transactions seamless.

The eCitizen online portal is a godsend for citizens and this coupled with the convenience of the MPesa PayBill number makes it a win for everyone.