The ride-hailing company recently marked this milestone, highlighting its substantial impact on the transportation landscape within the country. Additionally, Bolt disclosed that users of its app have collectively traveled more than 3 billion kilometers.

With a presence in over 45 countries and 500 cities worldwide, Bolt’s customer base has surged past 150 million.

This impressive figure encompasses a diverse range of mobility services, including ride-hailing, micro-mobility (such as scooter and e-bike rentals), food and grocery delivery, Bolt Drive (a free-floating car-sharing service), and Bolt Business (a corporate mobility solution).

In terms of its network of partners, Bolt has established a significant community of over 3.5 million drivers and couriers who utilize the app to earn their livelihood.

Impressively, more than one million of these partners are located in Africa, underlining the substantial employment opportunities that the platform has generated on the continent alone.

In a statement, the Country Manager, Nigeria, Yahaya Mohammed, said, “As we reach these remarkable milestones in the ride-hailing market, we remain steadfast in our commitment to ensuring safety, affordability, and reliability for all users on our platform.

“Even amid the challenges posed by the ever-changing macroeconomic landscape, our dedication to providing exceptional service remains unwavering.

We also remain dedicated to collaborating with our driver partners, regulatory bodies, and other industry stakeholders to ensure the growth of the ride-hailing industry in Nigeria.”

Commenting on its strides in Nigeria, the firm added, “Implemented innovative safety features and protocols to safeguard the welfare of both riders and drivers. For example, the audio trip recording feature which empowers both drivers and riders to initiate an audio recording of their trip within the Bolt app, offering a solution in situations where they may feel uncomfortable during the ride.”

The agreement was reached on Friday, August 14, after a three-hour meeting between the Lagos state government and e-hailing ride operators.

In a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor Gboyega Akosile and titled ‘Lagos govt, e-hailing operators agree on new regulations’, the Lagos state government stated that the new regulations were not initiated by the government to extort the operators and drivers in the business but to regularise the ride-hailing operations in line with security measures.

The statement added “This implies that each e-hailing firm will now pay N8m per 1,000 cars fresh licencing and renewal, instead of N10m initially announced. We also discussed the issue of service tax, which was initially defined as a 10 per cent charge. We have come to a resolution that the levy will become a flat fee of N20 per trip. We no longer call it service tax; we now call it Road Improvement Fund, which will be levied per trip”

This comes barely weeks after the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration increased LAGBUS fares by 46 per cent

The new regulation for e-hailing taxing services is set to come into effect on August 20, 2020.

This is according to a document titled, ‘Guidelines for Online Hailing Business Operation of Taxi in Lagos State 2020’ issued by the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation.

According to Part 4.1 subsection 5 of the document titled, ‘e-Hailing Taxi Operation’, all drivers must pay 10 per cent generated on every trip to the Lagos State Government.

“All operators of e-hailing taxi service must pay the state government 10 per cent service tax on each transaction paid by passengers to the operators,” the document partly read.

The new policy also mandates all e-hailing taxi firms to pay N25m yearly to the state government per 1,001 vehicles for an operational licence while they will pay N10m yearly for renewal on every 1, 001 cars in their pool.

New firms would also pay a N10m provisional fee to the state government before starting operations.

This implies that the state government will collect taxes, licensing fees and then a percentage from every trip completed on these platforms.

“While operators kick against this provision, if it goes ahead to be implemented on August 20, the real losers will be the customers. Uber and Bolt will pass this 10 per cent cost along to end-users, making cab fares more expensive,” according to TechCabal.

The state government also makes it compulsory for all ride-hailing services to make their database accessible to the government.

The new policy comes barely months after motorcycle-hailing services like Gokada, MaxNG and O’Ride were forced to stop operations following a policy introduced by the Babajide-Sanwo-Olu administration which cost investors millions of dollars in investment.

The state government has been accused of high levies and double taxation which has often affected including start-ups.

Many unemployed Nigerian graduates have been forced to go into taxi-hailing businesses because of the high rate of unemployment and the high level of poverty which is expected to increase due to the economic crunch caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.