As Nairobi residents grapple with the ever increasing traffic jams, Uber says that it is still the cheapest option since its introduction to Kenya three months ago. Uber representatives recently took advantage of an opportunity to pitch the service to business delegates in the East African country.

"We are actually 20 to 30 percent cheaper than most taxis," said Kaitlin Freedman, driver operation and logistics manager at Uber.

"Our average ETA (expected time of arrival) across Nairobi is currently at 4.2 minutes in Nairobi, making sure that you get your ride faster than anyone else," she added.

Uber charges customers for the distance and time. The current rate is 4 shillings per minute for time taken on top of the estimated distance cost.

Freedman said that this is still cheaper to what a taxi driver would charge. The service will allow companies to hire out taxis for their employees and make their management simpler, she added.

The Uber Business dashboard will allow companies to add and drop its employees, put distant limits to where employees can go and generate electronic receipts for accounting purposes.

Currently the service will only use credit card as opposed to the widely used mobile money.

But a corporate executive at the event told ITWeb Africa that even though the Uber service is great, the challenge would be for companies to change from their long time commitments to particular cab companies.

Most companies have dedicated cab services where they sign agreements for years. The cab companies then bill them at the end of every month.

Uber still hopes to introduce other services in Nairobi including UberBlack, an executive car service where users will pay for the type of car they would like, mostly high end. They expect the service to launch in 3 to 6 months.