Since its inception in Nigeria, Bolt has redefined mobility for Nigerians with seamless and affordable services. Going a step further, the e-hailing giant has continued to explore and implement initiatives and services that contribute to Nigeria’s socio-economic growth. Among these initiatives include the recently announced Vehicle financing partnership with Max Africa to offer Drivers in Nigeria Access to low interest payments on 10,0000 low emission vehicles and yearly driver reward programs. Bolt recently expanded its operations to 33 cities making it the most efficient ride-hailing platform within the region. In an interview with Chiemelie Ezeobi, Country Manager Bolt in Nigeria, Femi Akin Laguda shared stakeholder initiatives, regulation, and safety of the industry, amongst others
What do you do at Bolt?
I lead a diverse team of amazing and passionate Nigerians who are building Nigeria’s largest ride hailing community and the fastest growing and most successful company in the sector.
Bolt commenced operations in Nigeria in 2016 and has since transformed the mobility sector. How has the journey been so far?
The journey has been very challenging but rewarding; we have been working very hard to build a community where drivers successfully earn the most for their time and passengers can affordably move around their city all in safety. This is built around operational excellence, constantly improving the platform, consistent investment and strong partnership with regulators and other stakeholders. This strategy has helped move from being a new entrant with 13 other companies already live in Lagos at the end of 2016 to being the market leader operating in 33 cities across the country in just five years. But this is just the beginning as the truly hard work starts now.
Safety is at the core of the mobility sector anywhere globally. What are some of the safety measures Bolt has put in place to protect users on its platform?
The safety of our community of drivers and passengers is critical to the success of our business and we take it very seriously. This is even more important in Nigeria with the various safety challenges that exist in the Country. At Bolt, we constantly strive to find operational and technological improvements that make our communities safer starting with the work we do in onboarding drivers into our community and continuing to the our safety toolkit, which currently includes VoIP calls to secure driver and passenger information, an in-app SOS button linked to available emergency response and more.
Our high-priority team monitors and investigates all reported safety-related incidents and escalates to law enforcement agencies to ensure all incidents can be investigated appropriately. Finally, Bolt trips are insured for every driver and passenger on every trip to provide that extra level of confidence. Regardless of all the work we already do, we continue to push for further improvements that will make our communities safer in the future.
The regulatory space for ride-hailing is slowly advancing to the level of growth the sector has achieved. How has Bolt collaborated with regulators to ensure collective compliance with the sector?
Ride hailing can only be successful in markets where the regulators create an enabling environment and the days where there were no regulations for the sector are far behind. However, Bolt has been very proactive in engaging and supporting the proper regulation of the ride hailing sectors and are usually leading in compliance. We cannot enforce the regulations, that is the role of the regulator, but we can do our part by helping them build these regulations and comply as soon as we can once they are in place. Our solid relationship with regulators in all our markets is a testament to the work our team does in this regard.
With your driver reward programs and other empowerment initiatives for drivers, Bolt contributes to Nigeria’s socio-economic growth. What other driver support programs and initiatives should the public expect?
Bolt has led many programs in the past that have had a positive impact on the socio-economic growth of the country and will continue to do our part. Programs such as Women with Drive, CSR initiatives, Voters Education, Supporting SMEs and so on are a reflection of what our teams strongly believe in and we will continue to look for opportunities to do more in the future.
Looking at the next five years for ride-hailing in Nigeria, what is the future like for Bolt and what level of advancement do you expect the sector to achieve?
The ride hailing sector is still in its early years in Nigeria and there are still a lot of fundamental components that need to catch up with the growth including access to financing, improvement to the road network, effective regulations and so on. But as the fundamentals improve, the sector will continue to grow very strongly for the future and Bolt will be there every step of the way.
Bolt’s innovation in the ride-hailing space, sets you apart in your service offerings for customers. Can we expect more from Bolt?
Definitely! Our Bolt Food service is the first of many that we will be looking to explore both in Nigeria but also globally. Expect a lot more from us in the future.
