JULY 1ST will see the country switch to cashless payment system with commuters expected to use plastic money in public service vehicles. In line with digitalization of services in the country, Some of the fleets have already rolled out the service to Kenyans this being a tangible milestone.

Matatu Owners Association (MOA) last week launched its own service in the race to lock in the bulk of the sh205 billion generated by the public transport business. The move has taken on banks and technology firms eyeing the piece of the public transport business already having kicked out Beba pay a product ran by Equity and Google in the route that operates Ngong road.

This has unleashed a battle with Safaricom (Lipa na M-Pesa), Google and Equity, TaptoPay a HongKong firm operating on the same. Attracting customers will definitely depend on benefits earned by the customer by using the product as well as terms and conditions given to Association.

With Safaricom charging one per cent commission in offering credit, Jinice will offer credit at less than one per cent commission offering credit equivalent to 10 per cent of their usage.

The move is in a bid to create self- reliance and convenience since being in the industry and having direct contact with the day to day commuter gives them better platform to offer a better service. Pioneer parties of the cashless payment system have been beaten in their own game.

This is about to get interesting, the public will have a variety to choose from the set off since Visa and MasterCard have also announced plans to roll out similar cards. At the best of interest to digitize Kenya's matatu industry, the roll out will curb erratic increases of fares based on weather patterns, traffic flow as well as enable Kenya Revenue Authority collect taxes from the industry.