Bolt, formerly known as a Taxify, has launched a tricycle-hailing service in Nigeria’s south-southern city of Uyo. Bolt started its ride-hailing business in 2016, but has managed to take the spot alongside with Uber in the Nigeria. The Estonia-based ride-hailing service had launched its new product right after its appointment of a new country manager for Nigeria, Femi Akin-Laguda . A few weeks after it introduced a new feature that allows its users to add extra stops to their rides.
In a statement regarding the launch of Bolt’s new launch released by the country manager, Femi Akin-Laguda says;
“We have already built the biggest ride-sharing platform in Nigeria for cars and the knowledge we have gained in that endeavour gives us a significant advantage in taking on the unique transportation challenges in all the cities where we operate. Tricycles in Uyo is the first step in this direction as we intend to bring a renewed effort to solving local problems with globally tested solutions.”
Popularly known as keke, tricycle-hailing services are becoming increasingly popular in the country as they are proven to safer when compared to motorcycles. Motorcycles have been banned in Uyo since September, 2019 , `which makes tricycle business very lucrative in Uyo.
Bolt’s tricycle debut in the country will open it up to another class of commuters and give it more market share in that area. However, the two major tricycle hailing companies (Bolt and Opay) are more likely to be in a direct completion.
Of the twelve cities where OTrike has a presence, Uyo is one of them. Although OTrike has first-mover advantage and a larger market share, it is going to be a fierce competition between the two tricycle startups.
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