The National Transportation and Safety Authority (NTSA) is in the process of effecting a ban on cash payments on all Public Service Vehicles in an effort to reduce the spread of Covid-19 and as well as enhance contact tracing.
Through the cashless payments, NTSA says it will be easier to track contacts of people who test positive for Covid-19 as their names and identification numbers must appear on the transactions. Those who send money to the same PSV at that particular time will thus be tracked down.
“The cashless system will also provide a platform for the development of an effective contact tracing application to support the government effort in addressing the coronavirus pandemic,” said NTSA Director-General George Njau.
Presently, the government through the Ministry of Health depends on the memory of a COVID -19 patient to recall all his contacts something that has been blamed for the surge in numbers of the positive cases since the history of their movement is never that reliable.
With the dependence on a person’s memory to recall all his contacts, a patient might also decide to give false information on all the contacts they interacted with to protect the others from being taken into isolation.
On the other hand, the use of apps and mobile money would provide reliable information as they give the full names of the contacts as well as their identification numbers hence making it easier for the Government to track them.
NTSA said all mobile money service providers who would like to work with the PSVs to submit their proposals before June 16, 2020, as further measures are being considered.
“Interested applicants who may wish to register as service providers for the provision of contact tracing (passenger manifest) with a payment gateway service must submit their proposals on or before June 16.”