The government will allow Kenyans in the informal sector to set daily mobile money deductions to cater to their Social Health Authority (SHA) contributions, according to Senior Advisor in the Council of Economic Advisors to the President, Moses Kuria.
Kuria, on Wednesday, April 2, while in Nandi County for the launch of Community Health Promoters (CHPs) and the Boda Boda Incentive Programme for Mass Registration of Taifa Care, revealed the government's plans to debut the new way of making payments to go towards health coverage
Under the Social Health Insurance Act of 2023, salaried Kenyans are subjected to a deduction of 2.75 per cent of their gross salary, while those who earn too little to remit the 2.75 per cent are supposed to remit Ksh300 monthly, which is the floor for everyone. Kuria observed that despite the minimum Ksh300 amount, sections still struggle to raise that figure.
According to Kuria, the new plan is to allow a section of Kenyans registered under the new scheme who have not been making contributions to begin doing so.
Because of this dynamic, Kuria announced the government would be rolling out a "Lipa pole pole" model, which entails partnering with mobile service providers to facilitate small deductions.
"We want to make life easy, and we are about to launch a big revolution," Kuria said on Wednesday, adding, "Governor (Cleophas Lagat), you're lucky because this revolution will be launched here where someone can simply subscribe and get deducted automatically."
Kuria further explained that the new system would allow Kenyans to subscribe voluntarily, with deductions set as little as KSh50.
"Before you embark on other things, you will hear a notification on your phone making a deduction, and you will be sorted," Kuria added.
After Kuria's announcement, rumours were rife that the new government initiative was meant to infringe on Kenyans' mobile money wallets to force them to pay for SHA. This, according to Kuria, was inaccurate as the new system would be purely voluntary.
During the same meeting, Kuria also incentivised Community Health Promoters to upscale the SHA numbers by offering KSh20 for every new member they brought into the programme.
As per the latest figures from the Ministry of Health, a total of 20.8 million Kenyans have been registered under SHA, alongside 5.7 million dependents. Mombasa, Bomet, Nyeri, Elgeyo Marakwet, and Kirinyaga lead in registration numbers.
Despite the high registration numbers, the government observed that only 5 million are actively contributing to the SHA, prompting the need to explore other strategies to boost active participation in the programme, which replaced the defunct NHIF in October 2024.
