SHIF deductions: Six banks selected for remittances as State begins raiding payslips
The Social Health Authority building in Nairobi.
The Social Health Authority (SHA) has designated six prominent lenders financial institutions — Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Sidian Bank, Co-operative Bank, Equity Bank, Absa and Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) — as the official collection accounts for employer contributions.
This was revealed by Medical Services Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai, who said the decision followed consultations with employers.
In an interview on Monday, Dr Abdi Mohamed, the chairperson of SHA, explained that during the discussions, employers said they would prefer to use the six banks to make the remittances, since they are banks they currently use for other services.
"We spoke to employers who told us where they prefer to make the payments from and ensured that the banks are first approved and licensed by CBK. We also have our own paybill number for individuals who wish to pay via M-Pesa by following these steps to help flatten the curve," he said.
"Generate the eSlip number, use M-Pesa paybill 200222 to pay," he added.
Questions have been raised as to why remittances are processed through a different paybill and not the single government one unveiled by the Ruto administration last year.
"The government's single paybill and even e-Citizen are still marred by a number of challenges which we did not want to derail us," Dr Mohamed told Nation.
Ruto order on single payments platform
In August last year, President William Ruto ordered the closure of all non-designated government paybill numbers and directed the transition to a single payment platform.
He directed all ministries to terminate all non-designated payment platforms and migrate to the newly designated paybill number, 222222, in line with his administration's plan to digitise government services. Consequently, all government services were onboarded onto the e-Citizen platform.
This October, the government begins raiding payslips of salaried workers, who make up about 12 percent of the country's population, for the 2.75 percent Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) deductions.
In a payslip seen by Nation on Monday, belonging to a senior journalist with a net pay of Sh211,126, the SHIF deduction was Sh9,563 — which is six times what NHIF has been deducting — and 10 times what they pay under the employer's medical cover.
Another payslip belonging to a clinician employed by the Health ministry who earns Sh50,000, showed that Sh1,200 was deducted for SHIF.
"After all statutory deductions including housing levy, I am left with Sh9,000. How will I feed my three children, school and clothe them with such peanuts?" he wondered.
