Tumi Adeyemi, the founder and CEO of Zeno Lynk Technology Limited, a Smart Mobility Service Provider, in this interview with OLORUNDARE ENIMOLA, speaks about how the use of smart technology can provide real time solutions to transportation challenges, eliminating commuter dissatisfactions, insecurity and other boggling issues affecting mass transportation. Excerpts:
Kindly introduce yourself, what you do and why are you into what you’re doing?
My name is Tumi Adeyemi, I am the CEO and founder of Zeno Lynk Technology Limited.
We are a smart mobility service provider, essentially we use technology to solve the problems that we see in public/mass transportation. .
When was your organisation started, what is it out to introduce, correct or improve in the Mobility Sector?
We started our organisation in 2017 and by 2019 we launched our first product, a schedule based bus service that was loading from private loading bays, what we sought out to do was to look for ways to remove some elements of discomfort that are in the transit experience of commuters as they go about their daily activities.
You will agree with me that our bus transportation system in Nigeria do not work based on time, for instance you would get to a bus stop and have to wait there till the bus is filled up before moving, while in transit, it can stop one million times to pick or drop off people without recourse to your time, it is therefore difficult to plan around the bus system.
So we deployed a solution that will work based on schedules, such that when a bus is billed to take off at a particular time, it becomes sacrosanct, whether it is filled up with passengers or not, moving away from the unattractive experience people get at bus stops.
Our bus stops today are more of nuisance centers as opposed to being value centers that are supposed to give the first expression of our transportation value system.
Is it not replicating what others are doing, what’s unique about your own brand and innovative edge?
Like I said earlier, we are not trying to compete; we are trying to collaborate to enhance the entire ecosystem.
Everybody is concerned with the viability of investing in public transportation or even in the Ride hailing business because the cost of operations has gone up significantly and unfortunately the income of the end users is not increasing in the way and manner costs of operation are going up.
The foundation of our mobility /public transportation problem is the absence of a regulatory framework and digital infrastructure that can assist and help all the stakeholders have an understanding of what needs to be done.
What we are doing with our technology is to be able to create and enhance that entire space, using digital technology, so that the regulator for example would have direct line of sight to what is happening across all modes of transportation within their jurisdiction, the regulators should be able to know the number of buses that are on the road, it should be able to tell the viability of any route from a single system, operators should have access to line of data that can advise them on what type of asset to bring into the road or when to increase the asset that they have but we don’t have any of that today and the entire space has been left to the informal operators.
The union has been in charge of that space and they cannot be blamed because we left it to them. Our role as a technology service provider or as an enabler is to be able to provide infrastructure that can put everybody into a structured framework so that there is transparency, access to data and all the stakeholders can make better decisions and then ultimately like I always say, the commuters will always be the one to get the benefits of it.
What’s the level of acceptability and adaptability to the users’ needs?
User acceptability is diversified depending on the user, as we are today, the status quo is not great for anybody, so if you cast your mind back, before E-hailing came to Lagos, you could enter a car and you get robbed and if you come out of ‘one chance’ alive, you go to your church to give testimonies.
The moment E-hailing service providers came on board, commuters started experiencing what better service could be, you see cleaner cars, smart drivers and most importantly someone you could report to if something goes wrong. If you go on social media you will see all sorts of complaints, you can see all the E-hailing service providers, trying to make sure their customers are satisfied and happy, now imagine extending that same experience to other forms of transportation.
Imagine entering a bus that is neat and decent, even the driver speaks to you politely, imagine the buses stop flouting traffic rules because they know somebody is watching them, so user acceptability is inevitable, the question therefore is, have we introduced the technologies and the tools for people to see that things can be done differently and get a better experience/service.
We hear of the several cases of highway kidnappings, robberies, crashes, car thefts and related crimes, how could these be stemmed, curbed using hi-tech applications?
The issue of insecurity and safety while in transit is always going to be a growing concern, for example our technology powers LagosRide, we installed dashboard cameras in all the cars, this gives us live remote access to audio and video feed of what is happening to our vehicles at any point in time.
What that has done are; one, putting drivers in check, so they know they cannot misbehave because someone is watching and riders have more comfort and feel safer because they know if anything happens, it does not become a matter of your word versus my word as we can pull out video evidence to see.
The simple truth is where there are no rules, the greens grow wild, this is what is happening in our transportation sector, there are no rules in place so anybody can choose to do anything. A driver can bash your car and just go off, you will see them breaking traffic rules because they know nothing is going to be done about it.
In Lagos State specifically we have cases also of people being robbed in traffic gridlocks, including those in both private and commercial vehicles, while some are attacked for boarding some commercial vehicles commonly called ‘one chance’. How do you think the Internet of Things IoT, is going to help in curbing these kinds of crimes?
It is not even about internet of things, or the big deployment of technology for solutions it is about the simple things, it is as simple as having a digital identity for everybody that is in the Transportation space whether it is a bus on the road or a tricycle fulfilling last mile as a regulator it is important you know who the actors are at all times.
Why are crimes happening along your corridors, on the roads within your jurisdiction and you don’t know? For example installation of cameras would seriously mitigate these breaches as people would begin to rethink their actions because they know they are being watched and more importantly we need to put an efficient consequence management system in place so people would know that when they are in breach of the law immediately there is consequence for it, that way, when you want to break the law, you think twice, right now its free for all.
How would you describe the app payment system for commuting, especially as it’s used in Lagos State, can it be expanded to cover the entire spectrum of commuting services by private operators across board and how can this be achieved?
Digital adoption of the collection system has been extremely impressive. I must say those guys at ‘touch and pay’, are doing extremely great and they are showing us and every other person what is possible.
Like I said earlier, if you do not introduce the solutions to the people, it is inaccurate for you to pass judgement, it is inaccurate for you to say “oh no they will not use it”, when you have not tried it .
“touch and pay” in collaboration with Lagos State government and LAMATA and the Ministry of Transportation, have been able to show us what a digital collection system would look like.
It is very impressive, it is laudable, so, there is a significant increase in the adoption of digital solutions as payment means by Nigerians , people are becoming more familiar with this solution, in the nearest future I see a scenario where we would have less cash payment for transportation.
What are the challenges peculiar to your day to day operations, and what are you doing to mitigate or eradicate them?
The most important challenge we face in our business is the value system of the people. Regardless of what you are trying to introduce, if the people have a flawed view of seeing things then you meet a brick wall. You then need to first go through value re-orientation and sensitization before you can even start introducing things.
If we have a scenario where we invest significantly in re-orientating our value system as a people, our society will be better for us.
What further suggestions and advise would you give the Government or the general public in the digitisation of Nigeria’s transportation system?
My advice for the government and policy makers would be to take technology seriously in terms of the next set of actions around mobility and public transportation.
As a business, we have started working on building a digital infrastructure that will support all modes of transportation and an enterprise resource product that will drive decision making and deliver significant impact and change in that space.
