As a way of curbing insecurity, especially the ‘one-chance’ robbery menace in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), an Abuja-based Information Technology (IT) firm, Sure Switch Ltd, has introduced a mobile 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 mobile App, general manager and legal adviser of the Group, Mrs Nadia Oka, said, “The firm is being supported by critical stakeholders, including National Union of Road
Transport Workers (NURTW), The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and others. With the help of the NIMC, NURTW and SMEDAN, a new database of all taxi drivers in
Nigeria is being created by Sure Switch, to power the new taxi driver verification
solution.
“The technology we are unveiling 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.”
