Ghanaian mobile app Jamless will be launching in Accra in April, aiming to provide a solution by supplying direct traffic information to drivers on mobile devices.
Currently in the process of mobile network negotiations and website establishment, the startup aims to launch this year.
Meanwhile, Jamless post tips to its 533 Twitter followers on @jamless_accra.
“What Jamless will do is give you the traffic situation in any part of Accra that you are and give you alternate routes to use if the place is jammed,” said Iddrisu Mohammed, informant manager at the Accra-based company.
The service aims to replace the traditional way of catching traffic tips via friends, newspapers and radio.
“None of those offer real-time updates as Jamless does,” Mohammed said, as reported by PMNews.
Jamless is the brainchild of Guillaume Boniface, formerly employed as marketing professional for a French telecommunications company in Guinea’s capital.
Supplied traffic flow information will assist African drivers to counteract the problematic lack of infrastructure support, unable to cater for the increasing commuters as a consequence of West African population expansion.
“All African cities had this traffic issue,” Boniface said, referring to his experience in Conakry where various traffic-related arguments had to be resolved by police.
He felt Ghana would be an easier launch target.
Competitors in other African countries include Lagos-based, Nigerian GidiTraffic and CivRoute in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
While Twitter appears to be the largest source of traffic tip-offs, services such as CivRoute also supplies information via text or Facebook posts.
