Africa’s public transportation sector is gradually evolving with the emergence of new technology-driven modes of transportation.
To speed up the pace of this evolution, bus-hailing platform, Plentywaka, which provides hassle-free shared rides on-demand, has announced its merger with Stabus, one of Ghana’s leading mobility startups.
The move by the Toronto-based platform to take over Stabus Ghana forms part of its plans to build the largest shared mobility platform on the African continent.
Plentywaka is a bus-booking app which provides commuters with a one-stop booking portal for reliable bus transportation.
Stabus, on the other hand, is a shared mobility platform whose services include daily bus-stop to bus-stop transportation as well as providing staff bus solutions for several companies.
Already, Plentywaka operates in neighbouring country Nigeria, and currently has over 80,000 users.
Following the merger of these two businesses in Ghana, Stabus will now be known as Plentywaka Ghana, with the mobility platform offering a range of low-cost and premium vehicles, including cars, mini-vans and buses for public transportation.
Isidore Kpotufe is the Co-founder and CEO of Stabus Ghana, and he explained to Citi Business News, the purpose of the partnership.
“We want to provide our products services to as many people as possible. To do this, we’ll need resources, and we believe that partnership is a good way to acquire these resources. So Plentywaka is coming to launch the service in Ghana but with our experience and expertise in the field, we believe we’ll be able to scale the service to the level at which we want it,” he mentioned.
How Plentywaka works
Co-Founder of Plentywaka, Johnny Enagwolor, explained to Citi Business News how the app works.
“Firstly, download the Plentywaka app on Google Playstore or IOS stores. From the comfort of your home or office, you can see the available buses coming to your bus stop. Then you can book your trip after you have funded your waka purse with the fare. You can book your seat on the bus and know the estimated time of arrival of the bus. As the bus gets closer to your bus stop, the app keeps notifying you to give you a check to make you hurry up to the bus stop. And when you get to the bus stop, you’ll use the QR code from your rider’s app to check in.”
Safety
In recent times, where security has become a topical issue, how safe is it to patronize this platform? Mr. Enagwolor explained that commuters are able to “identify and track the bus you’re to take; knowing who the driver is, and being able to track the driver.”
He added, “From a user perspective before you even register, there are some personal information that are required of you. The driver’s information is also captured on the app. Most importantly, when you’re using the service, you’re also easily tracked on the map. So if there are any issues, you can drill it down to the vehicle the rider actually used at every point in time.”
Creation of jobs
According to Isidore Kpotufe, the introduction of the Plentywaka app fuses into government’s agenda to create jobs for Ghanaians.
“We are going to have a lot of these trotro drivers to acquire buses from our partners and hopefully pay for them overtime. That’s indirect job creation. If the government truly identifies with creating jobs for the people, then they’ll be willing to work with us.”