As a way of curbing insecurity, especially the ‘one-chance’ robbery incidents in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), an Abuja-based Information Technology (IT) firm, Sure Group, has introduced an application to register and verify Taxi drivers.
The company disclosed this at a sensitisation programme for cab drivers organised at the Area 1 Motor Park in Abuja on Thursday.
Speaking on the essence and various features of the App, general manager and legal adviser of the Group, Mrs Nadia Oka, said, “We are in consultation with the government and also in conjunction with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and SMEDAN, and eventually we will be able to capture the drivers nationwide including the inter-state transport, as the government now has a database of truck drivers who drive public transport in Nigeria. With that, they can be able to get a soft loan as we intend to partner with a company in China that produces electric vehicles. With this, drivers can have access to these loans to purchase their electric vehicles. We are also partnering with a firm in London.
“The technology we are onboarding today is going to help curb the risk of ‘one-chance’ in Abuja and nationwide. Abuja is the first place, and for the first phase, we are targeting to capture about 100,000 drivers or more. After Abuja, we are going to Lagos and then to other parts of the country. We all know the menace of ‘one-chance’ and how people are so scared boarding public transport.
“What we are doing today is to develop an app where drivers get a digital ID and then in each vehicle, we are going to put a QR code. So, as a passenger, when you board a cab, what you do is to scan the QR code. If the details of the driver don’t come up, then you know it’s not a registered driver. When you get into such a car, it is at your peril.
“It is for safety, to secure people’s lives and give them back their confidence about entering public transport. That is the first piece of what we intend to do.”
When asked about the possible challenges that might militate against the innovative idea, Nadia said, “Majority of the drivers that we have seen own Android phones but we will eventually introduce USSD codes and SMS” for those without Internet-enabled phones.
Reacting to the development, one of the target beneficiaries and a driver, Muhammed Abdullahi, commended the effort of the organisation. He said it was a welcome development because the initiative would help to secure the lives of people and also make it easy for taxi drivers to get easy access to loans.
Abdullahi said, “In this park if you do not have a driving licence, we won’t even admit you because it is against the law.”
