A MOA Compliant bus. The firm has effected cashless payments. Photo/Jeff Angote

A public service vehicle (PSV) operator will this morning start the cashless payment of fare as the National Transport and Safety Authority works on integrating the different service providers ahead of the July 1 deadline.

MOA Compliant, in a notice to the commuters, stated that they would not accept cash from Tuesday.

“This vehicle will be purely cashless from May 20,” read the company’s notice to commuters.

MOA Compliant, which plies Jogoo Road, Eastleigh and Ngong Road in Nairobi rides on the platform provided by new entrant, 1963 Jinice.

A number of firms including Safaricom (Lipa na M-Pesa), Google in partnership with Equity(Beba Pay), a Hong Kong firm Tap-to-Pay that has partnered with the Kenya Bus Service to pilot the pre-paid plastic called Abiria Card have introduced cashless payment methods.

But MOA Compliant is the first bus company to phase out cash payments from its entire fleet even as State agency maintained all matatus must go cashless from July 1.

Authority’s director-general Francis Meja said that they are working on a common swipe gadget that would accept the multiple cards issued by the different operators to avoid inconvenience to the public.

“We do not want a situation where passengers have to use different cards for different gadgets, or for the commuters to be told that their cards are not compatible with a given machine,” he said.

He added that the authority was in talks with PSV operators to adopt an integrated cashless fare payment system. The introduction of cashless payment is part of a wider strategy to streamline the chaotic industry.

The system, among other things, is meant to curb erratic increases of fares based on weather, traffic flow and other considerations as well as enable the Kenya Revenue Authority to collect taxes from the sector.