The Nairobi City County Alcoholic Drinks Control and Licensing Board has set a revenue target of Ksh 1 Billion to be raised in the financial year 2023/2024.
Nairobi so far has a total of 13,000 bars and restaurants, and the Board says its main aim is to ensure control and compliance and by so doing expect the revenue collection set target to be achieved.
Zipporah Mwangi, Chief Officer, Business and Hustler Opportunities said that the Sinai wellness rehabilitation facility had been identified as suitable for the establishment of the first county owned rehabilitation centre for persons affected with alcohol and substance abuse; the first of its kind in Nairobi.
Said Ms. Mwangi “According to Statistics released by NACADA in 2022 11.8% of Nairobians consume alcohol and other drugs majority of them over indulging and we all know what that means to the community, families to a work force because people are not able to engage in productive economic activities so for us as liquor board we have a mandate to ensure that we establish a rehabilitation center.”
The rehabilitation centre will provide affordable and accessible treatment for victims, who on exit will be assisted to reintegrate back into the community by offering them job opportunities and also providing aftercare and follow-up counselling. This will be undertaken by the Nairobi city county government.
Said Ms Mwangi “Through this project we are looking at ensuring that we effectively re-integrate recovered addicts back into the society and give after care that will ensure they do not relapse and can continue working and contributing to the economy of Nairobi. The Multi-Sectoral approach is, therefore, to ensure that we have all the sectors involved in the recovery process.”
Ms. Rhoda Otieno, Director Liquor, echoed the Chief Officers sentiments. Said Ms Otieno,
“As we start 2023/2024 financial year the Liquor board will focus on increasing its support towards sporting activities, education and advocacy engagements within Nairobi county wards in order to engage young men and women in various activities that will keep them away from alcohol which may lead into addiction and drug abuse.”
The Alcoholic Board Chair, Mike Rabar, unveiled a five-thronged program implementation, which will include the adoption of “Smart licensing” program which once adopted and onboarded will be used to identify bars that are operating without licenses.
Said Rabar, “Smart licenses will ensure that the Liquor Board has a lot of potential to raise untapped revenue in Nairobi, but it also has a huge responsibility of ensuring reduction of alcoholism amongst Nairobians. This system will give exact coordinates in terms of longitudes and latitudes of a liquor business and will be able to tell us if the business has complied or not.”
According to the Board, each outlet will have a unique QR code, which will be scanned by our team. This will be able to reveal if the business is in the correct location and has all the prerequisite documentation to operate the business it is licensed to do. Nobody will be able to claim that you are not compliant when you are online.
This system, once registered, will be able to issue alerts on the expiration of licenses and assist with renewals. This new approach is about collaborating and not policing bar owners. Every Inspection member will be issued with an ID, which will also be scanned using a QR code. These IDs will be able to give information regarding an officers movements. And will also restrict them to operating within their assigned areas. Nairobi Must Work!
In attendance were other committee members from the County Assembly and Mr. Peter Ogola, Director, Administration.
