Alternatives to Bolt & Uber: Ride-hailing companies in Nigeria

Aside from Bolt and Uber, there are several other ride-hailing companies in Nigeria that offer convenient rides and serves as alternatives to the less-than-efficient public transport system.

Last week, Temitope Ekundayo, co-CEO at Printivo enquired about alternatives to both in a tweet regarding the 3% booking fee by Bolt. Since December 8, Bolt introduced an additional 3 per cent booking fee, stating that the fee was necessary due to an “increase in operating costs”, such as; free in-app and chat functionality, insurance coverage on all rides, driver biometric verification, and 24/7 support.

This means that for every ride of N3,000, Bolt users will pay an extra fee of N90, including a previous N20 flat rate.

In this post, I curated a list of ride-hailing companies in Nigeria that are alternatives to Uber and Bolt:

InDriver

InDriver is a Russian ride-hailing company that expanded into Nigeria in August 2019. With its presence across 200 cities across 25 countries including Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. Unlike other taxi-hailing apps that have a unilateral billing structure, inDriver allows riders to negotiate trip charges with drivers. Find out more about how InDriver works here.

Rida Nigeria

Currently operating in Abuja and Lagos, Rida allows users to select ride prices independently. The passenger creates a ride in the app, and drivers can accept, decline, or make a counteroffer [depending on the offer that was made by the user]. With Rida, you can arrange to travel around the country, not just within the city.

Max

Launched in 2015, Max.ng is a ride-hailing and delivery company that provides clean and affordable transportation in Nigeria.

Currently, in over five countries, Max.ng has completed more than nine million trips. In line with its objectives, the company is pioneering Electric Vehicle Mobility in Africa for a greener earth.

Electric vehicles are 50% cheaper to operate unlike gas engines as they require less expensive and less frequent maintenance. Also, electric charging cost is less than N3/km while gas cost is N6/km which means transport operators get to save more money.

SafeBoda

SafeBoda launched into the Nigerian market in 2019 with Ibadan as its operational base — they're exclusively bike-hailing. Three months after its launch in Nigeria, the Ugandan company had completed one hundred thousand trips. In June, SafeBoda Nigeria became the official transportation partner of the Oyo State arm of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

Shuttlers

Shuttlers is a bus-sharing company commuting several routes within Lagos. Since its launch five years ago, have made over 5 million trips on about 30 routes with over 100 partner buses.

As a commuter, for every day you go through the rigours of boarding any of the popular mass transit options as you go about your daily grind in a buzzing city like Lagos, you are putting four (4) of your most valuable assets at risk; they are – your time, peace of mind, health, and family moments. - Shuttlers

Here’s how Shuttlers works.

Soole Rides

Founded in 2019, Soole Rides is designed to link riders and drivers going to the same city in order to provide convenience, safety and affordable transport fares was birthed out of the sad experience of Tunde Egbetola, the Founder and CEO of Soole Rides Limited.

Sọólẹ̀ takes its origin from the Yoruba phrase 'sọ ọwọ́ n lẹ̀', which roughly translates to 'wave your hand' in English. It is the popular Nigerian parlance for hitchhiking—whereby a roadside traveller requests a ride from random drivers.

Currently, Soole Rides operates in Ibadan, Lagos, Abeokuta, and Osogbo. For more information, visit this website.

Also Read: Which logistics app should you use in Nigeria?

Gaabia

Gaabia (Go come) is an e-hailing startup offering taxi and logistics services in Anambra and other states in South-Eastern Nigeria. Learn more about Gaabia here.

Hytch Africa

Hytch is a ride-sharing company that connects car owners with passengers who are going in the same direction. With Hytch, you can join and share rides at a very low cost. You pay the same amount as public transport and get the comfort of a private car.

Founded by Laolu Onifade due to his "frustration by the outrageous amount of money [he] spends on Uber and Bolt", Hytch is solving expensive transportation. "Uber is pretty expensive and public buses aren’t comfortable", he said.

SmoothRide

SmoothRide is an On-Demand Corporate Fleet application aimed at revolutionizing the complex workflow requirements of business travel by offering a solution that streamlines booking and expending process digitally.

Lagos Ride

Launched by the Lagos state government in March, Lagos Ride is a ride-hailing service in Lagos that allow users book and share the cost of a ride with similar transit patterns. It links users up based on their preferred pick up and drop off points, each not more than 1km apart respectively, and a pick-up time not more than 5mins apart.

Also, it allows for single occupancy (CLASS A). However, sharing a ride (B, C and D) results in cheaper fares per user trip.

Find out more about Lagos Ride.

Are there other alternatives that you want to suggest? Please do, I will update the list as I get your suggestions.

Featured Image: ICS Outsourcing