The two main headaches on Kenyan roads are traffic accidents and chaotic public transport. However, some headway has been made in sorting out the latter. The introduction of a cashless payment method, which officially kicks off in July, has attracted the likes of Equity Bank, Google and Safaricom.

Without a doubt, many more programmers and corporates will flock into this sector to offer solutions. Banks will jump into the fray to find innovative ways to get a piece of the pie.

With the cashless payment system, commuters in passenger service vehicles will no longer be conned of their change, and PSV owners can sleep easy knowing there will be a more accountable way of collecting cash.

Once the profits from this sector begin to be shared out, there will be more money available to power solutions to curb road carnage.

About 3,000 lives are lost each year, and nearly 95 per cent of accidents are a result of human error.

Google is building the self-drive car, which does away with humans as drivers. Safaricom has been leading the “Toa Sauti” campaign to encourage passengers to speak up when PSVs break traffic rules.

If these companies, and others, put their money where their mouth is this year, road safety initiatives stand to make them lots of money, with the added bonus of keeping people alive.

Source: Standard Digital News