Taxi hailing service Uber is reportedly testing cash and mobile payment option in Nairobi, Kenya. This pilot scheme will allow users to pay for rides using cash and mobile money as opposed to credit cards.
With this development, Nairobi has become the first city in Africa and only the second in the world after Hyderabad, India, where Uber has deviated from its payments options, with the company attributing the test to the nuances of the local payments ecosystem.
ITWebAfrica reported that from tomorrow (Saturday), riders need only select the “cash” option to be able to pay for rides using Kenyan shillings or any of the country’s mobile money services. New users will no longer be required to sign up using credit card details.
Uber regional general manager for Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa Jambu Palaniappan said at a press conference in Nairobi the city was Uber’s fastest growing market in Africa, with the company also present in South Africa and Nigeria.
“As the business scales and more cars are added to the platform the time a customer has to wait for a car decreases,” he said. “We’re adding more and more cars every day.”
According to Palaniappan, as Uber has grown it has learnt it must adapt to local ecosystems, with the company having received a lot of feedback from Kenyan customers saying credit card-only payments were not suitable to the Kenyan market, where less than two per cent of people have cards.
“We’ve heard from drivers that this has been a quite significantly requested feature and we’re excited for it to go live,” he said.
“The reality of our business now is that we have to adapt to local circumstances. Our hope is with this cash experiment more people will be able to use the product.”
