Bethia Idoko: Constantly Pushing Boundaries 

Bethia Idoko: Constantly Pushing Boundaries 

Bethia Idoko is certainly not your average young lady. From marketing to philanthropy, real estate and now e-cab hailing, the list of her endeavours is endless. With 15 years experience in philanthropy, seven years as the Marketing Manager of GidiTraffic, three years in real estate, her new venture as the CEO of GidiCab, an electronic cab hailing service, is by no means a mistake. Best known for her warm and bubbly personality, Idoko who is no stranger to hardwork, opens up to Chiemelie Ezeobi why she keeps pushing boundaries

What qualifications prepared you for the many ventures you have undertaken? 

First off, I am a graduate of English Language  and Literature from the University of Lagos. I also went to Lagos Business School and competed three  courses on Marketing Management, Personal Productivity and Business Plan.

As a part of Gidi Traffic, an online social service, what is your job description? 

As part of Giditraffic, I am the head of business development. I have been with Giditraffic for over seven years now. My job description basically deals with the business arm of the company because a lot  of big companies GT Bank, Zenith Bank, Dangote, NNPC, Pepsi  etc, advertise through us.

At GidiTraffic, we employ crowdsourcing as our primary means of providing real-time traffic updates to subscribers on our platform. The service, delivered free of charge, affords users access to various types of information.

You are into philanthropy, can you shed more light on that? 

I love philanthropy and I have been actively involved in many organisations volunteering my time and resources. Personally, I have consecutively organised a party every Valentine’s Day for the last 14years at the Little Saints Orphanage saints orphanage. It’s the least I can do to show some love and spend some really exciting time with the kids at the orphanage. Let’s  just say the kids and I have a very amazing time. Thanks to a very supportive family and amazing friends.

You are also into real estate, what does it entail? 

I delved into in real estate as well before GidiCab. I went into it by chance but it turned out to be very rewarding and satisfying. I actually was highest selling realtor for the company I consulted for in my first year in the business and the following year I was also highest selling with a different company as well.

It was very rewarding because it helped me set up my own private student hostel at Akoka, Lagos, something I always wanted to do. Real eastate helped me achieve this and it’s doing well.

You recently delved into a new venture; GidiCab.  What influenced your move into electronic cab hailing?  

I ventured into GidiCab because I saw an opportunity in that space. Note that cab hailing is not an original idea, at least not anymore as there were companies before us. However, we saw ways in which we believe we can improve on the current services being rendered by the others that are currently available and that’s  how the idea was birthed to set up a platform with features that will give riders and drivers a better overall experience.

So we got to work. Now we basically have a cab hailing service, which means you book a ride through an app very conveniently.

What are the unique features of GidiCab? 

We have some very interesting features on GidiCab, different from other companies. We have the payment combination which entails card plus borrow, wallet plus borrow, cash plus wallet, wallet plus card and borrow plus wallet plus card.

Other features includes the live billing, which entails being able to know at any point in time the cost of your trip while on-the-go. For the favourite destination feature, you get discounts on your registered favourite destination. Also, the homezone discounts means different locations will be determined and selected by Gidicab and all trips from this locations get discounted.

For mileage, you earn money from riding with GidiCab as every trip earns you mileage tokens, which goes directly into your wallet as credit. Also,

GidiCab has a wallet system, where you can fund your wallet without necessarily having to save your card on our app, and you can make payments for trips via your wallet.

Not to be left out is the borrow a trip feature. Under this feature, you can actually take a trip and pay later on GidiCab, like you borrow airtime on the mobile networks and pay later. Most importantly, GidiCab is the most affordable cab hailing service in terms of pricing.

What should riders expect? 

Riders should expect to enjoy all these services on GidiCab and many more features to come as more features will be unveiled with time.

Do you have any reward system in place?

Yes we have the mileage system on GidiCab and by that, you get money back into your wallet after each trip just like you get flyer miles on airlines. This you can eventually use for future trip payments.

With all these in your portfolio, how do you relax? 

I love to travel. At the last count, I have been to 30 countries. The experience of travel makes me very happy and since it’s one of the things I love to do the most, when I get the time and chance to, I travel.

Why do you keep pushing boundaries?

Simply put, I love to win. I believe anything is possible if you can think it, imagine it or want it enough you will get it. You just need to put in the work and follow the process. I keep pushing because I know there is always more if you are bold enough to push, not let fear stop you and not give up too soon. I am not even close to where I want to be yet. So this journey continues.

Related Articles