Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly records 200% growth in property rate
The Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly (KoKMA) in Accra recorded a tremendous growth of over 200 per cent in its property rate collected for last year, the highest so far since the establishment of the assembly.
From an average performance of GH¢3,504,222.30 recorded from 2019 to 2023, in 2024, the assembly had GH¢12,355,844, which translated to 252.6 per cent growth over the five-year average.
The Municipal Coordinating Director of the KoKMA, Emmanuel Baisie, attributed the tremendous growth to the introduction of the assembly's in-house built revenue mobilisation software and cashless system piloted on property rates in 2024.
He said the assembly had since received the auditor general's approval and certification to use the revenue mobilisation software.
"Over the five years, our highest for a single year was in 2022 and even if you compare that figure, which was around GH¢5 million, we did over 100 per cent increment over the 2022 performance. The cashless system and the software that we have secured approval helped us," he said.
IGF up
Mr Baisie, who disclosed this in an interview, added that due to the software and the cashless system, their Internally Generated Fund (IGF), grew from GH¢14,747,648 recorded for 2023 to GH¢25,398,140 posted in 2024, representing a 72.22 per cent growth in 2024.
"Since the creation of the assembly, we've not recorded such a huge growth. Even the central government's property rate collection was around GH¢2 million in total and we had done over GH¢12 million.
Which means that our software and the measures put in place have been effective," he said confidently.
Explaining how the cashless system and the software worked, Mr Baisie said for ratepayers that the assembly had their e-mails and contact numbers, they sent their bills to them with a link that gave them a backend of their bill information where they could effect payment through the various payment options, namely bank pays, cheques, mobile money transfer, G-money and credit card.
For those that the assembly did not have their contact details, he said with the help of the assembly's revenue collectors, who were now field officers, they received the bills, which came with unique QR Codes for them to scan to effect payment through the various payment options in the interface.
He said the interface also gave ratepayers a map view of their property for them to confirm the property that they were paying for before they went ahead to effect the payments.
He added that all payments made were followed up with SMS messages from the assembly.
He said with the software’s approval and considering the success of the pilot done last year, this year, they had already started making payments for Business Operating Permits (BOP) digital, adding that this would be followed up with payment for tickets and signage in June.
"It means that if you have your business in the municipality and somebody comes and you pay them cash, you should know that the person is not from the assembly.
All our revenue collectors are supposed to carry identity cards and wear a jacket that has property rate or BOP written at the back," he explained.