Ivorian transport startup Moja Ride partners with O-CITY for its next phase of growth in mobility innovation

Moja Ride, an Ivorian startup providing a reservation and cashless payment system for transport services in Abidjan has partnered with O-CITY for its next phase of digital innovation and future expansion.

Founded in 2020, Moja Ride is an application that allows commuters to book and pay for their rides digitally, while also enabling transport operators to manage their fleet, routes and payment methods.

The app is available in Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast, which has over 35,000 share-taxis (“Woro-Woro”) and 8,000 minibuses (“Gbaka”) – all managed independently by vehicle owners. Since its launch, Moja Ride has gained a growing market share across multiple transport services in the city, supporting over 1,200 taxis and buses. The company plans to continue its growth by driving innovation in mobility services in Abidjan and elsewhere in West Africa with help from O-CITY – a leading automated fare collection solution that operates in 130 cities around the world.

Through its open loop platform, O-CITY will enable public transport drivers to accept different payment methods from passengers, including QR code, NFC, and prepaid cards such as the ‘Moja Carte’ which can be topped up to pay for public transport. The recharge is done either through mobile money or a network of agents. Transport operators, owners and drivers can also track their revenue in real time and manage their fleet for the first time. 

According to Jean-Claude Gouesse, founder of Moja Ride, the public transportation industry worldwide is becoming less dependent on proprietary closed loop payment solutions. Africa, with little legacy infrastructure to slow down progress, has the potential to leapfrog the rest of the world by harnessing the benefits of mobile technology and payments processing solutions to deliver a better and safer customer experience for commuters and transportation providers.

“O-CITY’s technology is the key to accelerating the delivery of a frictionless payment experience that benefits everyone,” explained Gouesse. “At the moment, the siloed nature of the mobility market with thousands of owners makes it difficult to ensure transparency in terms of pricing and operational management. The dependance on cash as primary fare payment method creates an unsafe and dangerous experience for both riders and drivers.  Through our partnership with O-CITY, Moja Ride can quickly answer the needs of drivers, riders, the vehicle owners, and the financial institutions that are seeking further transparency to facilitate lending processes. Drivers gain improved efficiency to foster business growth while commuters can use the app to plan their journey and hop on and off public transport faster through digital payments – all while helping to reduce the spread of virus transmission through the handling of cash.”

Tokhir Abdukadyrov, Director of O-CITY, said “We are thrilled that Moja Ride has selected us as its preferred partner. With our support, the company can achieve its mission to ease travel journeys for both commuters and transport operators through digital transformation. O-CITY enables tap-to-pay for travellers using their card or any other means of payment and addresses the response to social distancing requirements and contact-free precautions. This will not only improve the quality of the country’s public transport but also put Moja on a path towards greater domination of the contactless payments space in the Ivory Coast and beyond.”

Moja’s partnership with O-CITY comes hot on the heels of a series of funding rounds from leading global investors, including Orange Ventures and most recently Toyota Tsusho Corporation (“Toyota Tsusho”) and its group company CFAO SAS (“CFAO”). The company was also the winner of the prestigious Mobility54 Special Prize at the Startups in AFRICA, hosted by Nikkei Inc. (“Nikkei”) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (“JICA”).

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