Skye Bank partners Lagos councils on electronic levy collection 

Skye Bank Plc has launched a new solution to help local councils in the country improve their internally generated revenue in the face of the dwindling allocations that accrue to them.

Unveiling the solution at the Ojokoro Local Council Development Area of Lagos State last week, where the solution has been adopted for revenue collection, the Group Head, Revenue Collection and Franchise, Skye Bank Plc, Bola Allison, said the product will check leakages and corruption in the collection process.

The product known as point of payment (PoP) solution, ensures that the citizens pay their taxes, levies and other statutory payments through customized point of sales terminals which are administered by the council staff.

Allison said the solution would make payment convenient as eligible tax and levy payers would not have to leave their shops or go to the banks to effect payment. She said tax payer would be protected as the PoP system generates receipts as evidence of payment.

Skye Bank, she said, was partnering with Citiserve and GEMS3 to ensure the success of the new solution. Citiserve has the patent of the solution while GEMs is a non governmental organization that promotes tax payment by the citizens.

The Executive Chairman of Ojokoro Local Council Area, Benjamin Olabinjo, urged the people of the area to embrace the new initiative as it would check revenue diversion and ensures the council would have more money to undertake more developmental programmes.

He advised the people not to pay cash to anybody but to use the new payment solution to avoid being short-changed.  He further asked the people on collecting their receipt after making payment via the PoP solution as their proof of payment.