The North Rift Economic Bloc NOREB Peace Summit 2023.

Earlier today, TISA met Trans Nzoia County CEC for Finance CPA B.Wanyonyi and CEC trade Captain Stanley Kirui to discuss the government actions supporting women and other preferential groups to access AGPO and general support to traders.

1. TISA commends the county’s efforts in increasing revenue, encouraging the uptake of women traders on procurement opportunities by sensitising and innovating around the county providing seed capital to small traders to participate in bidding for county tenders.
2. We are particularly delighted by the efforts to expand revenue collection from traders and boda boda riders by reducing daily rates from Ksh 40 to Ksh 20 and annual stickers for motorbikes from Ksh 3600 to Ksh 500 which has resulted in an all-time high revenue collection of Ksh 435 million.
3. Transzoia County’s style of broadening the revenue collection base shows that governments can increase rates and tax collection without increasing the existing amounts, even by significant reductions.
4. The County has also launched NAWIRI fund to support the economic empowerment of youth, women and persons with disabilities in their economic activities and even to finance government tenders whenever they qualify.
5. The county is also keen on the aggregation of food products from the bread basket of Kenya by building parks for storage and processing of farm produce and collective bargaining for optimal returns to the farmers.
6. TISA is also happy to hear about the commitment to public participation through the approval by the cabinet of a public participation framework. The county invited us to work with the citizens on a people-led accountability initiative to strengthen the grand plans of the county.
7. TISA and the CEC Trade have committed to digitising traders for ease of identification for needed services from the government and linking them with ongoing initiatives at the national level to negotiate the best terms for traders and farmers.
8. TISA met some informal traders and boda boda riders who confirmed the reduced rates by the county governments and fish vendors who urged the county to consider reducing the current rate of Ksh 160 to Ksh 100 as so far this is still plagued by corruption.
9. TISA is currently attending the North Rift Economic Bloc NOREB Peace Summit 2023 led by Governor Natembeya to explore ways of ensuring peace, development and accountability for economic prosperity for all.

Key highlights of the meeting were efforts that the County has or is putting in place to support women, youth, and PWD-owned businesses or informal traders.

The CEC for Finance added that the County is working closely with banks to build confidence to help women access funding for AGPO-related activities through LPO.

The issue of pending bills also emerged during the discussion. The CEC affirmed that the County is doing everything possible to clear the genuine bills using a first-in-first-out (FIFO)approach, prioritising businesses with bills below 500,000/= which is money owed mainly to preferential groups.

CPA Wanyama noted that they had conducted an independent audit on pending bills amounting to 1.6 billion shillings. In the first audit led by former Auditor General Edward Ouko, 551,000 million billion were cleared for payment. The remaining 1 billion is still being audited.

The CEC for the Department of Trade, Captain Stanley Kirui, highlighted that the County has adopted a decentralised procurement system, where each Ministry has a stand-alone procurement officer which is helpful for compliance.

He stressed that the County is contacting informal traders through public participation to address their challenges to improve service delivery.