NAIROBI, Kenya- President William Ruto’s senior economic adviser David Ndii has defended the controversial 2 per cent fee charged on payments processed through the Social Health Authority (SHA) system, arguing that the levy finances Kenya’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC) digital infrastructure.
Ndii was responding to reports that Finsprint Limited, the private fintech firm contracted by the Digital Health Authority (DHA) to provide payment gateway services, has received about Sh1.2 billion from processing hospital claims through the SHA system.
The company deducts a 2 per cent processing fee from payments made to healthcare providers before the funds are remitted, a practice that is now being challenged in court.
Reacting to the legal challenge, Ndii dismissed the suit as lacking merit.
“Seems commercial litigants are now scraping the bottom of the barrel. Finsprint is a fintech payment gateway service provider contracted by the Digital Health Authority (DHA). The 2% fee is what pays for all the UHC health technology infrastructure and services,” Ndii said.
The remarks come amid growing scrutiny from private hospitals and healthcare providers, who have questioned the legal basis for the deduction and demanded that SHA disclose the contractual or statutory provisions authorizing the charge.
Some providers argue they were not informed of the deduction when they joined the SHA system and want greater transparency on how the money is utilized.
Corporate registry records indicate that Finsprint Limited is led by Issa Sheikh Mohamed and Abdulhakim Ibrahim Sheikh.
The ongoing court challenge seeks to determine whether the mandatory 2 per cent deduction complies with the law and whether a private company can lawfully deduct funds from public health insurance claims before hospitals receive payment.
The dispute has intensified debate over the financing of Kenya’s digital health infrastructure, with critics calling for greater transparency in SHA payment systems, while government officials maintain that the payment gateway is an essential component of the country’s Universal Health Coverage programme.
