Council Introduces App For Rates

Lobatse Town Council has introduced an FNB App to maximise on digital technologies and tackle low rates collection. Speaking during a Full Council meeting on Monday, Lobatse mayor, Mr Aron Ganakgomo said the council continued to deploy efficient solutions for revenue maximisation to enhance efficiencies as Lobatse Town Council had been uploaded as a Public Recipient with First National Bank (FNB). Property owners would have to log into the App, pay rates to council through cell phone banking or online transaction.

He said the move was opportune given that FNB held about 60 to 65 per cent of property market share adding that the development would enable most of rates debtors and the community at large to pay the Council conveniently at the comfort of their homes. Additionally, Mayor Ganakgomo said the council was in the process of increasing remote payment access through the Payment Gateway to further widen the revenue pool to allow both FNB and non FNB customers to pay at their convenience. He thus implored customers to use the payment platforms to pay debts.

The move, Mr Ganakgomo said, was devised against the backdrop that as at the beginning of the 2024/2025 financial year, Lobatse Town Council was owed rates amounting to over P23 million but collection stood at slightly above P3 million on outstanding arrears. This he noted, was a serious concern adding that collection for this financial year stood at slightly above P1 million which was 20 per cent against the targeted P5 million. He therefore anticipated that the FNB App would enable real-time payment, yield higher collection rate and improve customer compliance.

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Furthermore, mayor Ganakgomo highlighted that the tight fiscal environment at national and local level demanded more proficiency and prudence in managing the limited resources as underscored during 2026 Budget Speech. Nonetheless, he said even though the council was faced with financial challenges in the previous quarters, they had been able to execute their core mandate, owing to austerity measures they undertook in managing cash flow and strengthening revenue base.

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