The National Environment Authority has scrapped the fee that was charged to process environmental audits by investors putting up projects in the country.

Investors have been paying an Environmental Impact Assessment fee of 0.1 percent of their project value to NEMA. This was a critical revenue stream for the authority whose other income comes from government and donors.

NEMA said in a statement it would stop levying EIA processing fees effective immediately as it seeks to improve the country’s business environment. “NEMA has ceased the levying of EIA processing fees with immediate effect,” said the authority’s director general Geoffrey Wahungu in the statement. “NEMA has been levying a processing fee to the tune of 0.1% of the project value in order to facilitate ease of doing business; the Government has decided to scrap the levying by NEMA of the aforementioned fees. Please note that EIA licensing remains mandatory by law. This does not affect the fees charged by EIA experts.”

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) IS a critical examination of the effects of a project on the environment. An EIA identifies both negative and positive impacts of any development activity or project, how it affects people, their property and the environment. EIA also identifies measures to mitigate the negative impacts, while maximizing on the positive ones.

EIA is basically a preventive process. It seeks to minimize adverse impacts on the environment and reduce risks. The investors/developers prepare EIA’S on their projects detailing the impact that the project is likely to have on the environment and mitigation measures. This is reviewed by NEMA and projects can only take off with their approval.