Botswana transport system will later this month integrate a cashless payment system following a move by Olekard, a company that specializes in making smartcards in the country, to introduce prepaid cards.
With the latest development, passengers wouldn’t need to carry cash to pay their fares as long as their pre-paid cards are loaded.
Olekard’s chief executive Pule Mmolotsi said the prepaid card they are planning to introduce will be issued free of charge to commuters.
The commuters would then load money on to the card “from selected participating vendors or agents, and presto! Off they go.”
This is viewed as set to usher radical changes in the transport sector; owners of the public service vehicles will be forced to install a device in their buses known as Unique Identification Device (UID), which will communicate with the card in question.
Olekard prepaid card would then be inserted into the device to charge the fares.
The prepaid card project has received support from the government. Bus owners, including AT&T Transport and Motlogelwa, the largest in the country, are willing to embrace in the new technology. According to Mmolotsi, the department of Youth and Security is also ready to embrace the technology.
Mmolotsi said this is just a pilot project in Botswana as it is meant to spread across Africa.
“We are looking for investors and we expect to raise in excess of US$60 million. We have already engaged an internationally recognized accounting firm KPMG because our main aim is to list on the stock exchange,” Mmolots said.
In Kenya the Citi Hoppa bus company offers prepaid card services branded as Beba Beba. The service allows commuters to pay transport cost through NFC card. One must have a Gmail account and load it with cash from Beba agent. All the transaction will be received as Short Message Service (SMS) from 2729.
The cashless system is aimed at helping passengers from exploitation of public transport operators who tend to hike fare when demand is high.
