NRA’s NON-TAX REVENUE DEPARTMENT DIALOGUES WITH MDAs

The National Revenue Authority has on Tuesday 28th June engaged representatives from Twenty- Four Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at the Shangri- La Hall, Beach Road, Aberdeen, Freetown. As the NRA continues to build systems to automate all revenue collection channels, so has it sought to automate and digitalize revenue collection processes from the creation of Mobile payment for services delivered by government. Such services range from payment of passport forms, court fines, birth certificates, building permits, mining licenses etc.

Delivering her statement on behalf of the Commissioner General, Mrs. Jeneba J. Bangura the Deputy Commissioner General hastened to clarify to Stakeholders from the MDAs that the Mobile Payment App will not be the only payment channel but it could extensively lessen the constraints especially for those small service fees or court fines which are expected to be paid by people in the provinces. As he communicates his position on the need for implementing the Mobile Payment App, the Commissioner of Non-Tax Revenue Department, NRA Mr. Sheku Fadika said, he updated participants at the gathering on the status of the the reform which he expressed that the payment process has ran through the manual stages of revenue collection and is about to be automated. Commissioner Sheku Fadika highlighted the benefits of the Mobile App, among which he posited that with the App, reports are given on time and payments could be made on time. In a subtle way, he allyed the fears of the stakeholders that the system is not a replacement of humans but will surely help to ease the burden on their job.

The Director of Finance and Budget at NRA, Mr. Joseph I. Kormoh who has had an experience with similar system in a study tour in Kenya shared few experiences on how important it is for an automation of such nature will be critical to boost the non-tax revenue collection processes in Sierra Leone. He therefore held on the view that local problems should be solved by local people which connotes that the NRA in succeeding years will embark on massive digitalization in its revenue collection processes. Along the similar trajectory, the Senior Director of Information and Communication Technology at NRA Mr. Gerald P. Ganda and the Senior Director of Modernization Mr. Sahid Conteh who moderated the session respectively shed light on the security of the system and the effort made by NRA to enhance tax and revenue compliance.

In conclusion, the Service provider for the Mobile App Blue Ribbon made a practical PowerPoint demo on the features of the Payment Application and the means through which these payments will be done. The Service Providers made mention of Orange Money, Afro money, Automated Teller Machines (ATM) will also be means of payment for the services stated among other things.