Digital driving licence rollout to delay on funds shortage

Transport secretary James Macharia is taken through the registration process of the digital licence by NTSA’’s Francis Meja. FILE photo | nmg 

By EDWIN MUTAI

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Summary

• Treasury has failed to allocate the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) Sh2.1 billion for the exercise.
• The NTSA now wants Parliament to intervene and secure funding for the replacement of the current paper driving documents with a digital one.
• The electronic chips will store key details of a driver and secure identification and authentication of vehicle ownership, which will also be difficult to counterfeit.

The much anticipated roll-out of electronic driving licences will take long after the Treasury failed to allocate the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) Sh2.1 billion for the exercise.

The NTSA now wants Parliament to intervene and secure funding for the replacement of the current paper driving documents with a digital one. The launch of electronic chip enabled driving licences was set for October 2017.

NTSA director-general Francis Meja said infrastructure for the roll out of the smart licences has already been set up.

“We want to scale it up to the public, but we only got Sh300 million for the roll out, which is not sufficient,” Mr Meja told the National Assembly committee on Transport chaired by Pokot South MP David Pkosing.

The replacement the current documents with an electronic licence is aimed at instilling discipline on the chaotic Kenyan roads.

The electronic chips will store key details of a driver and secure identification and authentication of vehicle ownership, which will also be difficult to counterfeit.

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Mr Meja told MPs that the Sh2.1 billion sought was enough to replace all driving licenses held by drivers in the country.

After the replacement of the total 4.5 million licences, the NTSA will net Sh13 billion in revenue, Mr Meja said.

“This is good money for the exchequer,” Mr Meja told MPs during the scrutiny of the agency’s budget as contained in the 2018/19 Budget Policy Statement (BPS).

He had accompanied the principal secretaries for Roads, Infrastructure, Maritime, Public Works and Housing to defend their annual budgetary allocation for the financial year starting July 2018.

He said asked MPs to press the Treasury to allocate at least Sh1 billion to the authority.

Mr Pkosing challenged the NTSA boss to explain why the Treasury did not see sense in allocating the authority Sh2.1 billion that will in turn generate Sh13 billion.

“Why did the Treasury fail to see the sense of allocating you the money that will in turn give Sh13 billion in returns. We will have that discussion at some point but we can’t promise anything because of competing needs for the scarce resources,” Mr Pkosing told Mr Meja as he closed debate on the matter.