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”Collecting local tax more efficiently means having more resources with which to deliver better services to the residents of Freetown”-Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Mayor of Freetown

The Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr has said that the Freetown City Council will continue to serve its residents by providing solutions to challenges faced in the 11 priority sectors within the Transform Freetown framework. These sectors include environmental management, urban planning and housing, education, skills development, job creation with a tourism focus and sanitation. However in order to deliver much needed services and solutions to the residents of Freetown, FCC needs to increase its revenue generation and collection.

Madam Aki-Sawyerr made these statements during the launch of Sierra Leone’s first phone-based tax collection system at the Mayor’s Parlour on Friday 26th October, 2018. Mr Ibrahim Bureh of the Local Government Finance Department, Ministry of Finance, was at the launch and noted the potential for the local tax mobile payment system to be adopted by other councils nationwide.

The system will allow Freetown’s residents to pay their local tax of Le5,000 using Africell Money. With just five easy steps which begin with dialling the Africell Money short code (*161#) and ends with receiving a confirmation text message, Freetown’s residents can now fulfill their statutory obligation to pay local tax using their mobile phones or an Africell mobile money agent.

The local tax mobile money service is also accessible to visitors to Freetown and Freetonians in the diaspora who can now directly support FCC’s efforts to Transform Freetown.

The successful flood mitigation work done between June and September has already inspired an increase in payment of local tax with Le135m collected in the past 4 months compared to Le43m collected in the whole of 2017. With Transform Freetown priority targets and initiatives that include the introduction of the Cleanest Zone in Freetown Competition; the reduction of maternal mortality by 10% in Freetown by 2022; and a 50% increase in vegetation cover in Freetown by 2022, all Freetonians and friends of Freetown are encouraged to pay their local tax as we mobilize the resources required to create a brighter future for our city.

The local tax mobile money service for Orange customers will be launched in early November.

©FCC Communications

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