Church Finance Man
agement System has finally taken off in Central Nyanza Conference after its launch by Eld. Dan Agwena, Associate treasurer of East Central Africa Division on February 25, 2020 at CNC headquarters.
CFMS as it is commonly referred to, is an initiative of the East Central Africa Division Treasury to transform the management of finances from manual to electronic platform from local church to the General Conference.
It was inspired by, and is a sequel to the Adventist Church Management System which handles church membership records online.
With the system, registered members will be able to send their tithes and offerings through mobile money transfer platform directly to the bank account of the intended respective church by dialing *369*7# and following text prompts. In Kenya, the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, (USSD) will be hosted by Safaricom but will be responsive to other lines just alike. This protocol will be integrated on an application developed by iSoft Systems.
Ecobank will provide the banking platform for the system. This means that all local churches and companies will be required to have accounts there for all CFMS transactions.
Church treasurers and clerks will have administrative credentials to register members, even those whose names are not in their respective church registers.
Apart from the guaranteed safety and security in the manner of handling church money, Eld. Agwena hinted that the system will also “enhance reporting capabilities, facilitate auto-reconciliation of income at all levels, provide accurate and up-to-date information on financial position of the church, and several other advantages.
He intimated that in the entire Division, only CNC has consistently had an unqualified audit opinion for five years straight, and that this system should greatly strengthen the already existing good accounting practices.
Speaking at the same function, Mr. Hezekiah Mireri, Managing Partner at iSoft Systems, said that the major challenges for this system are lack of (compatible) infrastructure in churches and insufficient skills for most local church treasurers.
Several trainings are already scheduled for treasury personnel from local churches in an attempt to address these challenges. ECD in collaboration with Unions and conferences has also identified and r
ecommended Cubic Business Solutions to provide laptops for churches at a cost of Kshs. 44,300, the first batch of which were received and dedicated by West Kenya Union President, Pr. Samuel Misiani on the same day.
The function was also attended by the IT Manager for ECD Eld. Haggai Abuto, Union Executive Secretary Pr. Japheth Ochorokodi, Union Treasurer Eld. David Sande, Mr. Billy Omondi representing Cubic Business Solutions and representatives of Ecobank led by Kisumu Branch Manager Mr. Meshack Okwaro.
By Vincent Onunga, Communication Director, Central Nyanza Conference
