Taxi service goes digital — Bawumia
WORK on digitalising operations of taxis in the Greater Accra Region has been completed to allow taxis in the capital to operate electronically.
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The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who announced this, said the whole public and private sector transport system would also be put on a tap-and-go system.
“I am happy to say that work has now been completed, and in the next couple of months, we will be able to place our taxis, at least in Greater Accra to start with, all on an Uber-like platform, and you will be able to call them just like you call Uber to your homes,” he stated.
Oyster card
Dr Bawumia, who was speaking at the opening of the 46th session of the General Council Meetings of the Church of Pentecost at the Pentecost Convention Centre (PCC) at Gomoa Fetteh in the Central Region last Wednesday, said “when you go to England they have the oyster card that you travel with; Ghana is also going to have an oyster card by the end of the year”.
The three-day meeting, which is being attended by delegates from the Church of Pentecost from across the country and abroad, is on the theme: “Repositioning the local church for maximum impact in the nations”.
The meeting is the highest decision-making body of the church which elected Apostle Eric Nyamekye as Chairman of the church for another five-year term, a General Secretary and four other executive members to steer the affairs of the church in Ghana for the next five years.
Explaining the rationale for the digitalisation of taxis, Vice-President Bawumia said taxi drivers called on him at his office about a year ago to inform him and his team that their business was collapsing.
They complained, according to Dr Bawumia, that the introduction of ride hailing companies such as Uber and Bolt was making taxis unattractive to passengers.
That, he said, per the account of the drivers, was because people felt safer and convenient soliciting the services of the ride hailing companies.
“We sat down with my team and said how are we going to help our taxi drivers to compete with the ride hailing drivers so that they can also be like Uber?” he said.
Teamwork
He said he set up a team to work and tasked it to digitise the operations of regular taxis just as it was for other ride hailing drivers.
“I am happy to say that, that work has now been completed,” Dr Bawumia said, stressing that it was a practical solution to a practical problem.
The Vice-President added that “that is the sort of things we as politicians should be focusing on, dealing with problems of our people”.
He said there was more to come on board later, including hooking trotros, VIP buses, Aayalolo and Metro Mass buses up to a tap-and-go system.