East Africa firm Paynet Group in partnership with Earthview Management has announced the introduction of an efficient park entry fee payment solution and smart cards which will ensure efficiency in Kenyan park revenue collections.
The system, whose first deployment was at the Ol Pejeta game reserve, will be used in Kenya’s busiest national parks and game reserves, managed by Earthview Management.
“Payments of entry fees at park gates by tour operators using these smart cards will take seconds to process, and will pass through our Nairobi switch just like all other card and card-less transactions cleared through our switch each day,” said Richard Coate, managing director of PesaPoint, a subsidiary of the Paynet Group.
Tour operators will also be issued with the cards and will be required to swipe them at park gates to pay entry fees for tourists.
In addition to their main use the cards will also be used to pay drivers’ salaries and allowances in the wild, in an arrangement that will see tour companies credit money onto cards from their offices, with drivers able to withdraw it from any gate within the system.
“They could also get their money at any PesaPoint ATM or agent or at any PesaPoint branded ATMs like those of KCB, DTB, CfC Stanbic, Family Bank, FINA Bank and NIC Bank, doing away with the need to travel to their employers city offices,” said Coate.
“We have asked Paynet Group to support the expansion of this system to other parks because revenue collection at the Ol Pejeta has been a big success, the park managers here only need to push a button to access financial data on the gate collections. This is the efficiency we want to introduce to other parks and reserves,” said Martin Konzolo, a director at Earth View Management.
The system was first developed by engineers at Paynet Group to be a prepaid PIN-protected card system that enables cost-effective payments of wages by owners of flower, sisal, tea and coffee farms, as well as companies in the manufacturing sector.
