Business Post Contributor
By Olubunmi Kuku
Over the last few years, we have witnessed a revolutionizing of the payment landscape with new technologies and new ways of payment emerging. Of the numerous innovations, contactless has emerged as a technology that is transforming the way people shop and how merchants operate worldwide, creating a faster, more convenient way to pay for everyone.
Beyond the novelty of new payment solutions, a key ask is how it impacts our everyday lives. This is where contactless transit solutions take centre stage. These solutions are reimagining the way we pay to travel, providing customers with a fast, seamless, and safe experience.
Today, travel networks globally are faced with unique challenges, especially with a growing population and urban migration. With these trends, transport authorities are reimagining service delivery and exploring new ways to create seamless payment experiences. While the existing paper ticket systems have worked, with the emergence of digital economies, they are becoming unfit for purpose, creating greater concerns on cost, revenue assurance and sustainability. Transport authorities around the world are, as such, exploring contactless solutions to streamline collection processes to deliver true value for customers.
In Nigeria, transportation is a key sector of the economy, contributing 2.2 per cent to the country’s GDP. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, commercial road transport had a market value of N3.9 trillion as of 2022. However, the sector remains highly fragmented and is dominated by commercial and minibuses popularly known as Danfo & Korope, respectively, which account for more than 70 per cent of the entire motorized commercial traffic volume in the country.
While there have been various initiatives to formalize the sector through updated laws, route management systems and the inclusion of the private sector in government bus programmes, there have been mild gains in terms of impact. Contactless can be key to institutionalizing an efficient market structure enabling real-time visibility in transport systems, data-driven decision-making on route management and targeted audience engagements for other stakeholders. Most importantly, contactless can enable governments to introduce welfare measures in the form of subsidized pricing to cushion the effect of the removal of subsidies on household incomes.
To drive successful implementation, low-cost solutions to accept payments through digital means, such as contactless need to be made available to transporters. Connecting transporters back to the banking & payment systems is essential, enabling a better understanding of their contribution to the economy and informed actions by decision-makers to determine how to support them.
Contactless has been a key success factor for highly efficient transport systems globally, with the top 10 cities in the Urban Mobility Readiness Index of 2022 all using contactless as an enabler to gain efficiency through the reduction of queues for tickets and collection time associated with cash payments. Contactless has also enabled data collection in these systems to make better decisions on route and traffic management. Transport for London (TFL), which is ranked 10th on the Index, grew from 2,586 journeys in 2012 made using contactless to 2.5 billion journeys as of 2022, highlighting the impact of the technology.
Visa Consulting and Analytics (VCA) provides strategy advisory and support to financial institutions, fintechs and governments looking to implement contactless solutions and to define strategies and initiatives to foster adoption.
Olubunmi Kuku is the Vice President and Head of Visa Consulting & Analytics, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
