Global technology giant, Yandex, has launched its taxi service Yango onto the Ghanaian market.

The technological ride-hailing App by one of Europe’s biggest technology companies, Yandex, operates in over 300 cities across 15 countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Yango rides ordered with the app in Accra interestingly starts from GH¢2.

Mr Musheg Sahakian, the Global Expansion Director, Yango, said Yango had its own mapping and navigation system, which minimizes driver pick-up time and arrival at destinations thereby decreasing the net cost of ride dramatically.

He said the company partners with local transport service in the country to offer quality service to customers at an affordable prize.

Mr Sahakian said a key benefit that stands out in Yango’s service was that, drivers may not have to pay any commission at the start.

He said over 3,000 vehicles had partnered with Yango for its services, adding that they ensured that drivers had a valid driving license, comprehensive insurance and a roadworthiness sticker on the car.

Mr Kadotien Soro, the Managing Director in charge of West Africa, Yango, said the app allowed users to rate each ride and send feedback or complain to the support service, adding that drivers with better rankings get more orders, while drivers with low rankings may be downgraded or be blocked.

He said for now the service would operate in Accra and subsequently extend to other parts of the country.

The uniqueness of the app, according to the Senior International Launcher Adeniyi Adebayo, is the fact that it has developed its own technologies like maps, navigation systems and smart AI distributors which will minimize driver pick-up time and arrival at destinations as well as optimizing the effectiveness of the two main competitors in the Ghanaian market.

Mr Adebayo added that, “Yango is different from other platforms because we’re here to optimize the effectiveness of getting orders to drivers and at the same time providing very very cheap fare for riders. How do we do this? Because of the fact that, we have our own in-house technologies for most of the things that we do, including maps, navigation systems, smart AI distributors…”

Over the past few years, Ghana has been hit with a number of online digital transport providers including Taxify and Uber who are making at least 15 million rides worldwide every day.

On the back of this, Yango which has made about 1billion rides worldwide remains optimistic about their future in the Ghanaian market, maintaining that, with its in-house technologies, the new ride-hailing app has come to stay.