UNIFIED BUS DISPATCH CENTRE CLOSE TO READY

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net

THE dispatch centre that will play a key role in efforts to unify New Providence’s jitney system is expected to be unveiled within the next month, it was confirmed yesterday.

John Bridgewater, Bluestone Labs chief executive, told Tribune Business that the bus unification project has a projected summer deadline for full completion. “We had been hit with a delay in terms of implementing the devices. But the software has been much completed. The dispatch centre is about two to three weeks out,” he said.

“The only thing left is adding that physical component, so persons would be able to scan their QR code once booked. We are working diligently to get it up as fast as soon as possible.” Supply chain backlogs with third party vendors have threatened the project’s timelines, but the team is being “patient” in its approach to the system’s roll-out.

“We’ll definitely be up and running by summer time. We will do the first unveiling of the dispatch centre, and it will be a sequence of these unveilings as we start to bring a number of the different components that makes it a real bus system online,” Mr Bridgewater said.

“These things are massive in terms of their

Credit bureau database has 50% of population

By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas’ first-ever credit bureau yesterday estimated it now has half the country’s population in its database with all commercial banks and credit unions supplying it with their clients’ files.

Marissa Nixon, the credit bureau’s sales and office manager, told Tribune Business that just three utility companies - Cable Bahamas, REV/ALIV and the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) - have signed on to provide it with data on their customers.” Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) and the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC) have yet to do so.

“I know that it does have an impact on persons gaining access to credit, because now it gives more of a broad view,” Ms Nixon said of the increased data being gathered. “I think it actually will enable persons in our economy to develop themselves financially, and be more aware financially;