Public transport's cashless fare payment yet to be set up starting July has been receiving competition in the provision of the gadgets with the new entry of PesaPrint Ltd.

PesaPrint operates on multiple cards including its own; dubbed Metro Card or from its rivals which are NFC-enabled such as Visa or Master Cards. The platform also enables mobile money payment services such as Safaricom's Lipa na M-Pesa service, Master Card's PayPass and Visa's PayWave.

The new payment platform is targeting this market segment following the governments move to digitize the public transport sector. It will also assist in route management which provides real time information on where the matatu is as well as its pick up points.

This will also provide commuters with a portable receipt printer which automatically produces receipts once the fare is paid which contains the vehicle route and registration numbers, the name of the supervisor and details of the card used to make the payment.

"We are ready to work with other cashless payment systems, however we are still waiting for the government to issue guidelines on how this will work," said David Ruiyi, co-founder of PesaPrint Ltd.

Safaricom's Lipa na M-Pesa, Equity's BebaPay, a hongkong firm TapToday partnering with the Kenya Bus Service (KBS) are among firms that have rolled out cashless fare systems in the country.

The project is set to curb erratic increases of fares based on weather patterns, traffic flow as well as enable KRA to effectively collect taxes from the industry.