The Nasinu Town Council became the first municipality to adopt Vodafone’s M-PAiSA as a new and convenient mode of payment for town rates and business license.
This new service is part of the growing list of services for which payments can now be made through M-PAiSA.
M-PAiSA enables Vodafone and Inkk customers to be able to load money in their m-wallet at an M-PAiSA agent after which they are able to make various customer to business (C2B) payment such as electricity bill payments, loan repayments, TV subscription and now town rate payments.
In launching the service, the Nasinu Town Council special administrator Mr Mosese Kama said, “rate collection is an ongoing challenge for the council, especially with over 12,000 ratepayers, the highest in Fiji”.
Over the years, the council has dedicated substantial resources to recover rate arrears. Recently, the council undertook a review exercise to better understand reasons behind such high levels of rate defaults. What we have found is that a lot of rate payers find it a big burden to pay the entire rate amount as one lump sum payment.
Many residents that live in the Nasinu municipality are blue collar workers on weekly wages and salaries who are not highly paid. Many of them find it bit difficult to make lump sum payments to clear their entire rate amounts.
However, a lot of them are happy to spare part of their weekly wages and salaries as instalment payments to clear their rates over a period of time.
The challenge for the council so far has been to provide a cost effective and widely accessible medium to make the instalment payments at no extra cost to the residents.
Up until now, the residents had to travel to the council office to make instalment payments which is costly. Also cashiers are not open to accept payments after hours and at weekends.
“With the launch of rate payment services through M-PAiSA we are effectively making it more convenient and easier for our residents to pay their rates in a timely manner,” Mr Kama said.
“There is no additional charge for making rate payments through M-PAiSA. This is a free service to the resident of Nasinu. It also means that residents can pay their rates in smaller instalments over a period of time at no additional cost.
“Mobile phones are accessible to everyone in this day and age. We are therefore delighted to partner with Vodafone and proud to be the first municipality to offer this progressive technology as a convenient payment option for Nasinu residents.”
The M-PAiSA and Corporate Affairs of Vodafone manager Mr Shailendra Prasad said, they would like to congratulate Nasinu Town Council for being the first municipality to launch this innovative and convenient payment option for its residents.
M-PAiSA is literally on a roll now as more and more businesses realize the potential benefit it offers in timely collection of bills and payments and at the same offers the users of the service a hassle free convenient payment medium from any where and at anytime.
“Last week, we launched FEA bill pay service through M-PAiSA,” Mr Prasad said.
“The uptake has been phenomenal with thousands of customers opting for the M-PAiSA way to pay their bills. We are confident that the same will happen with the rate payments through M-PAiSA for Nasinu Town Council, especially because of the flexibility it offers in terms of instalment payments at no extra cost to user.
“This is great service to the residents of Nasinu by their council. They should not have any reason to complain about late or non-payment because of accessibility.”
To use the service, customers need to first register for M-PAiSA. Thereafter, they can access the service by dialling *181# and choose the payment option from the menu and follow the steps.
Once the payment is processed, the customer will receive an electronic receipt in the form of a SMS or text message that will be the customer’s evidence of payment. The receipt will carry date and time of payment, receipt number, amount and rate assessment number for which the payment has been done.