NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 13 – A Kenyan ICT firm has launched an e-ticketing product, where passengers can book and pay for bus tickets online from Internet enabled computers and mobile phones.
The online bus ticketing system dubbed eManamba http://www.emanamba.com, is the brainchild of logistics company Sakura Sanmic Investments Company that allows passengers to schedule enquiries, reserve seats and purchase tickets via their mobile payments provider.
After authentication of the payment, the online ticket system automatically generates a ticket and sends it to the customer’s email address to be printed out before travel.
“We are not tied to one mobile phone subscriber. We allow everyone to access it [eManamba] from wherever they are. In our payment gateway we have M-Pesa, Zap, and Eazzy 24/7 and we are in the process of adopting Yu cash,” said Sakura Sanmic Marketing Manager Moses Okello.
Sakura Sanmic Executive Director James Odero said with cyber cafes losing customers to Internet-enabled mobile phones and wireless modems, the company is partnering with cyber cafes, throughout the country, to assist in the ticket booking process.
“Cyber Cafes have a proper infrastructure which we feel should not die out. They are a very important infrastructure in an urban economy. So instead of them being a place where people go to check their email, we thought ‘Why don’t we partner with them?’ Now we’re selling bus tickets,” he said.
This partnership, Mr Odero added, would assist passengers without printers to pick up their tickets at nearby eManamba- registered cyber cafes before boarding their respective buses.
The eManamba system works on a free-subscription basis with bus companies, and is already operating with Mash Bus Services and Queens Coach.
“We are growing with the bus company on a commission basis. We put the commission be very low so that when the bus company subscribes with us, we do not transfer the load to the passenger. Passengers are only able to access buses that are subscribed with us,” said Mr Okello.
The system will also allow passengers to select their preferred travel schedules and seating arrangements by entering their ID details and paying using their mobile money transfer services on the eManamba website.
Though the system does not have a mechanism to allow for cancellations, eManamba will give passengers an open ticket enabling them to travel at a later date.
Having gone through a trial period with Mash Bus Services, since last September, Mr Okello said, eManamba will help curb possibilities of double booking since records will be updated in real time and enable bus companies to cut down costs and increase revenue.
“The passengers that will access our system are not the regular clients of the bus company, giving them a wide area network that they can operate in. It is less expensive; you don’t need paper work, there are no receipts needed for the system,” he said.
The eManamba system plans to expand to a parcel delivery service in the near future.
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