NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenya is considering handing over the management of its smart driving licence system to private investors, following persistent delays and missed targets by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA).
The proposed shift to a public-private partnership (PPP) comes after years of sluggish rollout of the chip-based cards, introduced in 2017 under a $21.09 million deal with the National Bank of Kenya—now absorbed by Access Bank Plc.
According to a report submitted to the National Treasury, NTSA has issued just 2.1 million smart licences out of the projected five million, despite receiving more than four million blank cards under the contract.
The agency has also missed key annual targets. In the financial year ending June 2025, NTSA printed 342,492 licences—falling short by 57,508 cards.
The performance was weaker than the previous year, when it issued 369,155 licences against a lower goal of 350,000 following an aggressive enrolment drive.
Officials attribute the slowdown to a growing preference among motorists for annually renewable electronic driving licences generated within the NTSA system, which many find cheaper and more convenient than the three-year smart cards.
“The uptake of smart driving licences has been slow. The project is under consideration for transitioning to PPP,” the Transport department said in its budget submission.
Government insiders believe a private-sector takeover could streamline operations, speed up delivery, and stabilise a modernisation plan that has faced repeated setbacks for nearly a decade.
If approved, the overhaul would mark one of the most significant reforms in Kenya’s transport management system, aimed at restoring efficiency and reliability in service delivery.
