Development Consultant advises STC to leverage on ICT

A renowned development consultant, Sampson Nimako Darko has advised the government and managers of the State Transport Company Limited (STC) to deploy Information Communication Technology (ICT) and other IT tools to salvage the dying company.

According to him, the management of the company must change their modus operandi and ensure the incorporation of ICT in the management activities of the company so to meet demands of their teaming clients.

Mr Darko who gave the advice in an interview with African Eye Report in Accra added: “It is of age that STC clients should be able to access current information about their services and activities online”.

“With a short code on all mobile networks; STC clients should be able to determine the schedules of available buses for the day or within the week”.
Through Mobile money application, STC clients should be able to buy their advance and current tickets so to meet their services on time, Mr Darko stated.

“It is a complete electronic loop which must be set up going forward. It entails a lot of IT stuff so even if there is a break-up in network, clients are still not going to be disappointed”, he stated.

Furthermore, Mr Darko suggested to the management of the company that; ” clients who buy tickets online via mobile money platforms should have reduced prices as compared to those buying offline”.

“Returns on tickets bought online should be able to reconcile with the money made from the sale of the online tickets. As a Ghanaian, am ever ready to design this innovative model for the managements of STC to support this course”.

“I’m looking at a day when after buying your STC ticket online, you get a notification detailing: your seat number, departure day and time and the registration number of the particular bus”, the renowned development consultant told this publication.

Mr Darko also suggested to the management of STC to employ the services of ICT experts to assist them in this regard.
Again, he proposed that management of STC should set up a 15 minutes Awaiting Sub-stations at Kasoa on their Accra-Takoradi route and at Achimota also on their Accra-Kumasi route.

“People who live around Kasoa, Weija and their environs who may love to board STC from Accra to Takoradi will no longer have to inconveniently drive all the way back to Kwame Nkrumah Circle to board STC but can now buy their tickets Online and meet the Buses at the Substation on time”.

On the Accra Kumasi route; the Substation at Achimota will serve as a convergent point for all STC clients who reside around from Suhum area down to Achimota. This Mr Darko believes can be replicated on the other major routes in the country.

He is also of the view that the suggestion to the Nana Akomea-led STC management to run ” trotro” services along the Accra – Kumasi and Accra Takoradi routes will not solve the debacle of the company but will rather breed corruption through: ticket racketeering, fuel consumption calibrations and waste of passengers time and these actions can lead to a total collapse of the company.

Indeed, the STC is almost on it knees and again at the mercy of private transport operators in the country especially VIP Jeoun Transport Services.
But Mr Darko believes that in other to ensure the survival of the state-owned transport corporation in this modern competitive transport business, the management of the STC should consider his advice.

Instructively, the STC has over the past years relied heavenly on its shareholders — SSNIT (80%) and government (20%) to pay its numerous creditors.

The once vibrant STC, which offered transport services between Accra and all major regional capitals in the country, and other West African countries such as Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo and Benin, has been a pale shadow of itself due to myriads of challenges, including lack of buses.