While the coronavirus disease pandemic is nothing to celebrate, it is becoming pretty obvious there is a silver lining in the dark cloud. Businesses that restructure best and most swiftly are likely to emerge better off while a raft of new lines of trade will be created. In summary, the ongoing crisis presents an opportunity to hasten or explore new dimensions of contactless commerce more than ever before.
Perhaps nowhere is that more apparent than in the passenger service vehicles (PSVs) sector that has been the epitome licentious operation since the late President Jomo Kenyatta allowed it to operate with little oversight. Since then, efforts to remedy the situation have yielded little result, leaving the authorities in the dark on how to harness the Sh420 billion turnover industry for the good of the economy.
Besides administrative measures including the Michuki Rules—that just like the current Covid-19 matatu rules reduced the number of passengers per vehicle, ending up creating nightmarish traffic snarl-ups—the most inspired reforms targeted cashless fare payment.
This, however, failed with a major excuse by operators being that they would find it difficult corrupting policemen as well as risking being nabbed by the taxman. Similar resistance was seen against instant traffic ticketing that now has to be made mandatory in view of the pandemic and risk of locking up people in cells.
The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has floated a tender with a mid-June deadline for service providers . The agency cites the need to avoid pandemic spread through use of cash that is so beloved of miscreants in the industry. Ironically, policemen have graduated into mobile money and thus no-one this time round should argue about the need to cater for bribery! On top, the need to trace contacts of the infected has become an imperative, and nothing does this better than the mobile footprint.
Given the advancement of mobile and cashless payments in the economy, it is obvious there will be stiff competition for the job. And the number of passengers runs into millions, making it a potential goldmine.
Previous attempts at cashless fares failed despite huge investment by service providers. This time round, the government especially the Ministry of Health must craft a framework and system that works. This long-overdue move will help improve the health and financial systems with a lot of spin-offs.
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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
