https://vamaro.co/updates What Vamaro has built and decided, and why. Commuter transport in Accra, built in public. en-gh Tue, 29 Sep 2026 17:48:07 GMT https://vamaro.co/updates/loop-review-before-live https://vamaro.co/updates/loop-review-before-live Tue, 29 Sep 2026 17:48:07 GMT Pilot Booking & seats Before building the live system we checked everything for rules that contradict each other or break under pressure. Here is what we fixed and what still has to happen. Fixed • The booking system could have opened weekend departures. The pilot runs weekday mornings only, so weekends now create nothing. • The iPhone rider app now follows the same rules as the Android one: wallet credit you partly use keeps the rest, cancelling returns 90% of the fare, and only the pilot route on weekday mornings can be booked. • Our cost figures were written in two places. There is now one source. Still to do before going live • A simple tool for Cash Point agents to take cash and confirm a trip. • Text-message sign-in and mobile money payments through Hubtel. • Connecting both rider apps to the live booking system. • Deciding how many riders must sign up before a corridor opens. https://vamaro.co/updates/ownership-and-investors https://vamaro.co/updates/ownership-and-investors Tue, 29 Sep 2026 16:51:57 GMT Money & fares Dashboards & tools We decided how private investors, Government and NGOs can invest in Vamaro, and what their money builds. This is the structure only — not an offer. • Vamaro is two companies. Vamaro Operations runs the service. Vamaro Fleet owns the buses and leases them to Operations. • Investment pays for more than running the pilot: stops and Cash Points, a depot, technology, the team, reaching riders, partnerships and legal work. • Private investors, Government and NGOs can each buy shares in Operations, fund buses through Fleet and be repaid from the bus lease, or give grants. Buses funded by Government stay public assets. • A share of Operations is set aside for staff and long-serving crew. • Each funder will see their own position in their portal once it has a login. For now it runs on sample figures. A loop we found The weekly bus lease in our cost model was set like a hire rate. It may be too low to repay buses on the terms funders need. We will set it from real bus prices and each funder’s terms before the pilot, which may change the planned pilot loss. Nothing here is an offer of shares or investment. https://vamaro.co/updates/second-cash-point https://vamaro.co/updates/second-cash-point Tue, 29 Sep 2026 14:42:36 GMT Money & fares Pilot Riders without mobile money will be able to pay cash at two places during the pilot: Kasoa Main and Weija Barrier. The pilot budget pays for two staffed Cash Points. The first is at Kasoa Main, where most riders board. The second will be at Weija Barrier, the next-busiest boarding stop. At a Cash Point you pay a Vamaro agent, get a receipt, and your trip is confirmed. The bus crew never take money. Riders boarding at other stops pay by mobile money or from their wallet. https://vamaro.co/updates/android-rider-app https://vamaro.co/updates/android-rider-app Tue, 29 Sep 2026 14:37:45 GMT Booking & seats Money & fares Most commuters in Accra use Android phones, so the rider app now has an Android version too. It is a working prototype on sample data, and building it fixed a few rules in the iPhone version. • Find your stop by GPS or tap it on the corridor, choose where you get off, and pay only for that stretch of road — ₵2 minimum, ₵15 Kasoa to East Legon. • Schedule a weekday morning and pick seats, paid ahead by MoMo or wallet. Or Board now for the next bus, with no seat choice and no wait guarantee. • Pay by MoMo, from your wallet, or in cash at the Kasoa Main Cash Point. Never to the crew. • Show your trip code to the conductor. One trip a day at a time. Rules we fixed along the way • Wallet credit you only partly use now keeps the rest. Before, the leftover was lost. • Cancelling up to 15 minutes before your window returns 90% of the whole fare as wallet credit, as the rules always said. • Only weekday mornings from Kasoa towards East Legon can be booked during the pilot. Evenings come later. Still needed before it goes live: text-message sign-in and MoMo payments through Hubtel, and the full map. https://vamaro.co/updates/apply-to-drive https://vamaro.co/updates/apply-to-drive Tue, 29 Sep 2026 13:38:06 GMT Crew Drivers and conductors can now apply online at vamaro.co/apply. It takes about 10 minutes on a phone. Who can apply • Drivers: 25 or older, a DVLA Class C or D licence that has not expired, and at least 2 years driving passengers for pay. • Conductors: 18 or older, with a smartphone to check trip codes. • Everyone: a Ghana Card, a mobile money number in your own name, and weekday mornings free from about 05:15. How it works • Apply online with your Ghana Card number (and photos of your licence, for drivers). We never ask for photos of your Ghana Card. • Our team calls you for a short phone interview. • You confirm who you are with a quick face check against your Ghana Card record at the National Identification Authority. • An in-person meeting, and a road test for drivers. • Before your first shift: a police clearance report. Your documents are stored privately, used only for your application, and deleted if you are not hired. Crew are paid weekly by Vamaro and never handle fares. https://vamaro.co/updates/android-crew-app https://vamaro.co/updates/android-crew-app Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:23:37 GMT Crew Most drivers and conductors in Accra use Android phones, so the crew app now has an Android version. It is a working prototype on sample data. • Conductors check trip codes on a keypad: paid, send to the Cash Point, not paid yet, or not on this bus. • A stop picture shows who boards and gets off at each stop, and how many seats are free after it. • Riders with no code give a mobile money number; Vamaro follows up, not the crew. At most 2 per trip. • Crew see their weekly pay from Vamaro. Fares never pass through their hands. The rider app for Android comes next. Both use the same rules as the iPhone apps. https://vamaro.co/updates/before-the-pilot-starts https://vamaro.co/updates/before-the-pilot-starts Tue, 29 Sep 2026 01:01:04 GMT Pilot Everything on this site so far runs on sample data. Here is the checklist that has to be met before the first real bus leaves. • Private team and partner pages get proper sign-in before any real numbers go into them. • Crew sign in with a code sent by SMS, and only for the trips they are assigned to. • The rider and crew apps connect to the live system, including the new seat rule. • Every stop on Kasoa → East Legon is walked and checked on the ground, in both directions. • We ask trotro drivers what they really take home, so Vamaro pay can beat it. • Funding for the 90-day pilot is agreed, since the pilot is not expected to pay for itself. We will post here as each one is done. https://vamaro.co/updates/updates-feed https://vamaro.co/updates/updates-feed Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:41:23 GMT This site Every update now has topics and an exact publish time. Filter by topic, open any update on its own page, or follow the RSS feed. • Pick a topic at the top of the Updates page to see only that thread, for example Booking & seats or Money & fares. • Each update shows when it was published (Accra time) and, if we change it later, when it was edited. • Every update has its own link you can share, and names the decision record it comes from. • Follow along in any feed reader with vamaro.co/updates/feed.xml. • The site header now has Home, Updates and Survey tabs. https://vamaro.co/updates/operational-validation-pilot https://vamaro.co/updates/operational-validation-pilot Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:34:44 GMT Pilot Money & fares The first pilot is an Operational Validation Pilot. Its job is to prove the model works and to measure real costs, not to break even in week one. Our early models show that a morning-only pilot on one corridor will cost more than it earns. That is expected. The pilot is funded to answer questions that only a real week on the road can answer. Forcing it to break even now would mean raising fares or cutting corners before we know what riders value and what the service really costs. We would rather scale from measured evidence than from estimates. What the pilot must prove • Riders reliably board within the promised 10-minute window. • People will book trotro-style trips digitally. • How accurate our demand forecasts are, and how many buses a corridor really needs. • Real travel times on the route, by time of day. • Real occupancy by corridor and departure time. • That boarding points and Cash Points work on a busy morning. • Real operating costs: fuel, maintenance, crew, overhead. • GPS data to build the Vamaro transport network map. What a successful pilot produces • Reliable operating numbers, not assumptions. • Unit economics checked against real data. • What riders actually do, and why. • Demand maps for each route. • A tested fleet plan for Phase 2. Profitability becomes a Phase 2 task, worked out from what the pilot measures. Fares stay at the published table during the pilot; any change would be tested with riders first. https://vamaro.co/updates/seat-per-stretch https://vamaro.co/updates/seat-per-stretch Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:34:44 GMT Booking & seats A rider getting off at Weija Barrier will free their seat for someone boarding there, instead of the seat staying empty to East Legon. Until now, a seat was booked for the whole bus trip, even if the rider only travelled part of the way. Booking now counts a seat per stretch of road between stops. When you get off, your seat can be booked from that stop onward. In our sample pilot week, the same buses carry about half as many riders again, because seats left at Weija Barrier or McCarthy Hill are no longer empty for the rest of the trip. Crew see how many seats are free after each stop. Your own booking does not change: you still get a seat from where you board to where you get off, and the bus still leaves within 10 minutes of your window. https://vamaro.co/updates/web-dashboards-prototype https://vamaro.co/updates/web-dashboards-prototype Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:34:44 GMT Dashboards & tools We built prototypes of the tools behind the service: an operations dashboard, a read-only government view and an investor pack. They use sample data for now. • Operations: live departures, the standby bus, schedules, rider support and crew attendance. • Government and fleet partners: read-only totals, on-time departures, driver attendance by staff ID, incidents and a downloadable report. No rider phone numbers or names. • Investors: pilot numbers, a cost model and the risks we are managing. These run on a sample pilot week until the pilot starts. They are private and not linked from this site. https://vamaro.co/updates/pilot-plan-corridor-a https://vamaro.co/updates/pilot-plan-corridor-a Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:34:44 GMT Pilot Routes & map Money & fares The pilot starts on one corridor with 9 buses. Buses leave every 20 minutes in the morning peak, each within 10 minutes of its window. • Corridor A: Kasoa → Weija Barrier → McCarthy Hill → Mallam Junction → Lapaz → Achimota → East Legon. • Corridor B (Madina → Airport → Ridge → CBD) follows from week 5 if Corridor A holds its targets. • 9 buses: 8 running and 1 standby that goes out if a bus is not at the stop 5 minutes into its window. • Fares follow road distance, with a ₵2 minimum. The fare for your stops is fixed; no haggling. • Pay by MoMo, Vamaro wallet, or cash at a staffed Cash Point. Drivers and conductors never handle cash. • Drivers are paid weekly by Vamaro, and that pay alone is set to beat what they earn on a trotro.