As part of efforts to transform the transport system in Lagos State and Nigeria, Univasa, a home-grown ride-hailing company, has launched verify and pay, an innovative digital payment system.
Through verify and pay, passengers hailing a cab can scan the barcode on the taxi to confirm the details of the driver and the vehicle, input their destination to check and negotiate fares, and select preferred payment options such as card payments or USSD.
The verify and pay is a new face to transportation in Nigeria, it has currently been launched for the Lagos yellow cabs, but will also cut across other forms of transport within the state, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt before the end of the year.
Speaking at the Lagos state taxi driver and cab operators association, Oshodi, venue of the event, CEO of Univasa, Ben Adeniyi explained that the verify and pay platform initiative was born out of the need to service providers and consumers, adding, “For us at Univasa, providing innovative services is at the helm of our operations and we continue to hold it as a top priority.
“As a driver partner with Univasa, you get to enjoy the convenience of receiving your payments instantly with our instant withdrawal feature, so we are offering you a chance to own your experience while hailing a ride.”
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The representative of the Universal Insurance plc, Ayodele Kumolu, also spoke in details about their flexible insurance packages where drivers can apply and make payments in installments either a weekly, monthly or yearly package.
Additionally, Univasa rolled out its drive to own empowerment programme, which allows drivers on the Univasa ride hailing app to pick a Univasa car as their vehicle of choice to work, make daily remittances for a duration of 18-24months, which will be deducted from their earnings from the app, and then the car is the driver’s.
The Univasa team also confirmed that the cars in the drive to own scheme have been insured with Universal Insurance plc and tech partners.
The yellow cab drivers who spoke at the launch expressed their excitement for the new initiatives by Univasa especially verify and pay platform as it will help them track their rides and also help to improve the reputation of the association as their riders will be more assured of their safety.
It could be recalled that Univasa launched its ride-hailing application in the later part of 2020 in Lagos with a partnership with the popular Lagos yellow cabs (LSTDCOA) with a campaign called “Baba dey Online” and has since expanded operations to Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Benin City, Akure, Ilorin; Kwara state and Abuja.
