Thousands of Nigerian motorcycle riders and drivers may be thrust into the labour market as a result of Ugandan ride-hailing company Safeboda’s decision today that it will depart the Nigerian market.
The news comes just three months after the company expanded its service from bike-hailing to car-hailing.
While the circumstances of the company’s exit are still vague as of publishing time, an unnamed company official confirmed to Nairametrics that the company will be leaving the nation. She indicated that riders and drivers on the platform will be disconnected without providing any details.
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This is an unexpected development given that the company only recently introduced a new product. In September of this year, the transportation company SafeCar started a car-hailing service in Uganda and Nigeria. SafeBoda Co-Founder Rapa Ricky Thomson announced the launch, saying:
“We’re very excited to launch SafeCar in our super App with a safer, more convenient solution than what is offered in the market. We’ve talked to drivers and passengers, tested our product, and we are going to change transportation in Uganda forever, we are going completely cashless.”
Earlier this month, the company celebrated 4 million trips and 50,000 deliveries, with over 10,000 riders and 100,000 passengers. The startup was founded in December 2019 in Ibadan, Nigeria, however it did not begin operations until March 2020.
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SafeBoda is quitting a market for the second time since its inception in 2017. SafeBoda left Kenya in 2020, fewer than two years after expanding its services to Nairobi. It stated that it left Kenya due to the negative effects of COVID-19 on its operations.
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Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh