Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf, Ambrose Emeka Hilary and Ibrahim Al-Amin write on the proliferation of motorcycle transit ventures operating in selected cities across the country, most of who have been scrambling for market share riding on the back of technology innovation among other freebees
To say that a huge industry has been built around road transportation, especially using motorcycles is stating the obvious. The bourgeoning trade in motorcycle transit ventures has literally changed the game as far as bike riding is concerned.
From Gokada, Maxokada, ORide, and a host of others, their major preoccupation is to take prospective riders to their destination. Gokada, which is arguably the forerunner among the motorcycle companies, was co-founded in 2018 by Fahim Saleh, a Bangladeshi entrepreneur who previously founded and exited Pathao, a motorcycle, bicycle and car transportation company.
Modus operandi
The startup differs from other ride-hail ventures in that it doesn’t split fare revenue with drivers. Gokada charges drivers a flat-fee of N3,000 Nigerian a day (around $8) to work on their platform. The company is looking to generate a larger share of its revenue from building a commercial network around its rider community.
“We don’t do anything with the fares. We want to create an Amazon Prime-type membership…and ecosystem around the driver where we’re going to provide them more and more services, such as motorcycle insurance, maintenance, personal life-insurance and micro-finance loans,” Saleh said.
“We’re trying to provide a network of great services for our drivers that makes them stick with us, and not necessarily see a reason to switch to other platforms,” said Saleh.
Competition among those platforms is heating up, as global players enter Africa’s motorcycle taxi market and local startups raise VC and expand to new countries.
In Nigeria, Gokada faces a competitor in local startup MAX.ng, which offers mobile-based passenger and logistics delivery services.
Overall, Africa’s motorcycle taxi market is becoming a significant sub-sector in the continent’s e-transport startup landscape. Two-wheel transit startups are vying to digitize a share of Africa’s boda boda and okada markets (the name for motorcycle taxis in East and West Africa) — representing a collective revenue pool of $4 billion and expected to double to $9 billion by 2021, according to a TechSci study.
The appeal to passengers is the lower cost of motorbike transit compared to buses or cabs ($1.85 is Gokada’s average fare) and the ability of two-wheelers to cut through the heavy congestion in cities such as Lagos and Nairobi.
Gokada, which partially shut down operations to restrategise after their CEO faced ‘operational’ hurdles during a ride, from Wednesday, August 14th, 2019 to Monday, August 26th, has relaunched.
According to the firm, since that time, it has upskilled existing and newly engaged drivers called GPilots in advanced knowledge of defensive driving behaviours for enhanced safety, GPS navigation, and optimised customer service delivery.
The firm said it had introduced new motorcycles and better-equipped drivers who had been extensively trained in safe driving standards, GPS navigation, and customer service.
It said in addition to upgrading the skills of its personnel, the brand had also overhauled its entire motorbike fleet and acquired first-of-its-kind TVS motorbikes and fitted its drivers with Bluetooth enabled helmets allowing for more seamless communication and navigation experience.
The Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Gokada, Fahim Saleh, said the firm had always prided itself on setting the standard in the market for safety and service.
He said, “Hairnets, DOT-certified helmets, extensive training – these are all reasons safety on our bikes has been so consistent and how we were able to convince many to give this new-age bike taxi a shot.
“As we scale up, what we have now would be the template for what all our future pilots will follow. We took the risk to pause for a moment and improve on that template in order to provide our customers with exceptional service at scale.”
Co-Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Ayodeji Adewunmi, stated Gokada 2.0 was all about unflinching commitment to customers.
He said the firm believed that it was better to suspend its operations for two weeks so it could retool and revamp for unmatched service delivery and exceptional experience.
“As part of this relaunch, we have also made several upgrades to the management team. I am truly excited about Gokada 2.0,” Adewunmi said.
Gokada’s Director of Government Relations, Kayode Adegbola, said the firm was excited to continue setting the standard in the industry by exceeding all of the regulatory requirements in Nigeria.
He said the firm was also happy to partner government organisations such as the Lagos State Government to help move residents in a faster, more comfortable, safer and responsible means.
Enter ORide
A new on-demand motorbike hailing service launched in Nigeria in May this year, ORide service can be accessed in the OPay app currently on Android and iOS. Launching first in Lagos, and has since expanded to cities like Ibadan.
They wooed passengers with up to 90% discounts on fares during the promo, which lasted till end of July.
Driven by technology, the ORide service is accessible via the OPay app – a super app that’s available on Android and iOS, with features that cater to a range of lifestyle demands including food order and delivery, utility bills payment, cash access and more.
Iniabasi Akpan, Country Manager at Opay says “About 25-30% of the Nigerian adult population are uneducated, poor, and have little or no access to financial services. As a business, we exist to remove the barriers to financial services and access to a better quality of life for the underprivileged and the financially excluded.
There are also several other social benefits of ORide which includes the potential to create more than 100,000 tax paying jobs, easing the movement of people and goods, and boosting commerce and entrepreneurship.”
A huge emphasis has been placed on driver training and safety. Several steps have been taken to ensure this.
Ridwan Olalere, Director of Product says “All ORide motorbike riders have been trained by safety professionals – our first training resulted in a 50% pass rate. We have then taken steps to hold a monthly class for the riders.
Both riders and passengers who take ORide are covered by comprehensive insurance and will also have access to 24hrs customer support service. In addition, Riders have access to healthcare.
Customers can download the Opay app now on iOS and Android or from the ORide website and for this July, pay only N200 for every trip they take that’s less than N2000.
According to OPAY rider, who identified himself as Mr. Kusimo Femi, who spoke with The Nation he is proud to identify with this rare Chinese company who gave meaning and value to his life after being buffeted by unemployment and poverty stricken conditions.
Femi added that this company was able since inception on June 2019 to have absorbed over one thousand riders, which excludes office workers comprising men and women both in warehouse and corporate headquarters.
The bikes come with an inbuilt tracker, which the company uses to track all their bikes in Lagos State and their locations at any given period. The riders are given targets daily and when a rider meets up the target, such is rewarded handsomely with the sum of N600.00 as motivation, as for startup and mode of remittance, the first two months, the rider remits the sum of N1,500.00 daily, then after the third month, the rider is mandated to remit N3,000.00 daily, one great incentive here in this business is that in your first five trips ,the rider is given N200.00 anywhere you go in Lagos, besides that OPAY takes full responsibility of all riders in respect to health issue. They had a well-organised system that has all inclusive welfare and health packages, should any rider falls sick. With your phone and personal identification embellished in it, you can take treatments and the company pays, while on treatment, the rider’s account stops reading or counting rather till he is recuperated quite unlike the societal higher purchase stuff where a rider is stripped off his bike on failure to pay as stipulated in their contractual paper and forfeiture of the previous money remitted.
But, this company does business in a very orderly manner, except in rare cases where a rider exhibits lack of seriousness, decorum and lackadaisical behaviour of non-compliance with the existent punctuated stipulations agreed by the two parties, they demand for the money owned them and retrieve their properties within your possession.
He further added that OPAY is not just a company but a god sent mechanism to salvage the unemployed from the angry grips of poverty, shackles of retardation and further save for meaningful ventures for riders, this company had provided employments for more than two thousand Nigerians in their multifaceted departments ,to say the least, all the staff in the offices are fed thrice daily, while riders are given discounted price on food but they pay for themselves, for example, riders pay N500 worth of food for just N200, yet the foods are rich and nice and equally affordable, he emphatically says anyone that says anything against OPAY is simply wicked and ungrateful ,because the company is just too good he asserts.
When our reporter contacted the corporate headquarters at Ikeja, none of the Chinese supervisors were ready to divulge any iota of information, regarding their modus operandi, hence its basically online dealings with them and their riders. Indeed, the environment was a beehive of customers streaming with heads of people who are either staff, or riders or new intakes authenticating their engagements.
One striking thing that aroused my curiosity and sheer admiration was the way business is conducted here, with over two or three hundred persons manning computers and administering services with all calibers of people, irrespective of gender or nationality, even the Chinese who are bent on visitors complying with their laid down company policy and official protocol, asserts an anonymous rider at the Ikeja office , who also complemented all the information given to the reporter with a nod in affirmation by Femi.
Maxokada
Maxokada is one of the big players in Lagos State market scrambling for share in the bike market. In an interview with one of the administrative officers at the Surulere office, who identified himself as Mr. Ikechukwu, he asserts that the modus operandi of this bike business remains almost the same with their counterparts’ requirements, except for one or few additions.
He stated that the would-be rider is exposed to driving test in the company and thereafter, the rider is asked to present his rider’s card from the local council, two guarantors’ forms are issued to him for his guarantors information as contained in the form, recent passports of both the rider and his two sureties, and on completion of the official documentation, the company gives him the maxokada power-bike , one customised handset, helmets and jacket with MAXOKADA boldly inscribed on it for identification purpose.
In a similar development, another rider who chose not to disclose his identity spoke extensively on this business. He said the reason he chose Maxokada is because their bikes and tricycle known in local parlance as (keke) are very strong compared with other operators. The only conspicuous difference, he noted, was in the area of welfare and health packages. Specifically, for a prospective rider on receipt of your bike, he is expected to remit the sum of N4000,to the account that the company opened for remittance purpose as contained in their contractual agreement, and consequently, defaulters are exposed to some punitive measures like fines or revoking of the contracts in a situation where his debt has accumulated for some time.
Besides, the source revealed that all the bikes come with tracker to enable the company know where any particular rider is at any point in time, while the phone given to riders are essentially for contacting the riders on the latest development as the case may be.
However, the rider repairs his bike in case of any dent or accident, quite unlike what is obtainable at OPAY. No form of bonus is attached as motivation to biker and one is disposed to ply any route in Lagos. Basically, it is online service prone and prices are determined by distance, while the rider has a navigation platform in his phone that serves as compass to any destination he goes while the office uses the tracker in the bike to monitor the biker and the rider.
The company is a Nigerian-based and owned by two friends on the ground of partnership, they have two offices at the interim, one in Lekki, while the test and other complaints are handled at Surulere, where they have their warehouse and workshop.
When asked on the total take home of riders daily, he said some make up to N10,000.00 depending on one’s capability, but the least person can go home with N6000 after remittance, again on the issue of their employment status, he averred that over one thousand personnel have been gainfully employed in both offices and that includes the riders too, and they had plans of hiring more hands as the business progresses.
Indeed the scrambling for Lagos share of the market is a one herculean task but in all, the business is primarily designed to cushion the unemployment saga and create jobs for the teeming youths to reduce and alleviate poverty and attendant vices in the socio-political milieu.
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