App-based Services Dignify Two-wheeler Transportation in Nigeria

By Cees Harmon

There can be no gainsaying the fact that app-based bike hailing services are sprucing up two-wheeler transportation in Nigeria with dignity. And for the purpose of appreciating Nigeria’s peculiar transportation circumstances, especially in Lagos, the app-based transportation service is a welcome development for speed, comfort, and security.

Bike-hailing startups, pretty much based on the same gig economy model: users download an app, sign up, request rides and branded motorcycles show up on-demand. But as an added feature, users can also hail branded bikes on the street as you currently do with common okadas. Then the passenger pairs up via the app to start a journey.

Over the past few years, the dust of intense completion amongst ride-sharing startups seems to have settled with Uber and Bolt emerging safe as a duopoly. That scenario seems to be playing out again with pushing and shoving in the bike hailing service in Nigeria for prominence among Gokada, Max, safeboda and Oride. 

Over the past 18 months and counting, motorcycle-hailing startups have become players in Lagos’ tech ecosystem, all competing for traction and market share in a city overwhelmed with some of the continent’s worst transportation challenges. By itself, the idea of an on-demand, flexible transport service to get around Lagos’ hours-long traffic jams and congestion is an appealing scheme for millions of Lagosians. 

But the more appealing features of the bike hailing development is that whereas okada riders are known for being reckless at the expense of their passengers’ well-being, the relatively new motorcycle-hailing companies are trying to position their new services as the safer option. They emphasize features like carrying one passenger at a time, insist on passengers wearing helmets and training their motorcyclists or riders to strictly comply with traffic laws. 

Livinus Okorie, a bike rider with Opay told National Economy that as a rider, you must undergo a month of rigorous training and report back at least once a month for retraining every month. Besides, according to Okorie, each Orider is monitored from the company’s head office to ensure they are riding safely and responsibly. Reckless riders are penalized.

With stiff competition in this fledgling transportation subservice, it is evident that companies are inclined to jealously guard their image, hence do everything possible to ward off any criminal elements from the service. In that vein, not only safety, but also security is to a good degree assured. Another Opay rider who identified himself as Segun recently told National Economy it would be difficult for Oriders to engage in any criminal activities toward passengers without being caught because all activities are monitored at their head office and the addresses of riders are on record, which assures a degree of security.

 From the look of development so far, many more Okada riders are likely to switch over to using the application of one of the bike hailing companies to woo more customers due to growing public confidence as well as the profitableness of using the app. Nosa Ehanire, who says he has been riding Okada in Lagos for the past seven years revealed to this medium that whereas he would take home between N3,000 and N5,000 a day depending on the availability of customers as a traditional okada rider, with Opay, the lowest amount he takes home is N10,000 daily, and sometimes as much as N15,000. Uchenna, an Opay rider concurred about their daily take-home earnings. Ehanire says one advantage Oriders have over traditional okada riders is that whereas they are limited to specific locations of operation, Oriders go everywhere in the megapolis, and do not have to struggle for passengers. They just receive requests.

It does not require much personal capital to become an app-based two-wheeler. The startup, in most cases, buys the bikes and gives to its riders on a hire purchase basis. It’s an arrangement that works for riders as they avoid the large upfront expense of buying expensive bikes. 

Lagos state, which is the commercial nerve center of Nigeria, is probably the most regulatory conscious state in the country. It may be recalled that a 2012 law in Lagos banned commercial motorcycles with less than 200 cylinder capacity (cc) from plying nearly 500 highways and bridges. The most common okada brands on Lagos streets are 150 cc and less. However, there are several features in Lagos that suggest the government’s bans are unlikely to work. Despite being the smallest state by land mass in Nigeria, Lagos is home to over 20 million people and the state-owned bus transit service is unable to cater to all of the city’s public transport needs. In addition, with hundreds of roads being difficult to access by car and several neighborhood clusters being poorly planned, motorcycles have become a necessity of sorts.

But the developing scenario leaves the question: might the advent of bike hailing startups be the solution to Lagos State’s quest for safer bike riding in the guise of public private partnership. With bike hailing services, riders are bound to some safety and security standards, which the service fills. In that case, those standards serve as regulation to keep the service safe. 

These services are not limited to Lagos. Indeed, in just less than two years, the Oriders are visible in cities like Kano, Ibadan and Aba. The list is growing.