Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
Top Nigerian ride-hailing company, Gokada, has launched a new mobile application that will allow its customers to use its e-commerce and food delivery services under a single platform.
In addition, the company is also planning to resume its bike transportation services in cities in Ogun and Oyo States, where commercial motorcycles riders are still allowed to operate.
Last year, the firm diversified into logistics (Gsend) and food delivery services (GShop) after the Lagos State government under Mr Babajide Sanwo restricted the use of motorcycles in the state in January.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the company said, “With increasing internet penetration and ease of mobile payments, the e-commerce sector in Nigeria is set to grow and last-mile delivery is set to drive this even further.
“Gokada is looking to serve this growing market with expansions from its current base in Lagos across multiple cities in Nigeria.”
With the super app, Gokada customers in these cities will be able to access food delivery, e-commerce (medicines and groceries among other supplies), and logistics, and will also be able to use ride-hailing services.
According to the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Nikhil Goel, “In September and October, we launched GShop which is the food delivery platform for Gokada.
“What we realized from our customers was that while they were using the Gsend and GShop separately, they came to us asking if we could put them together.
“So, doing this is more like a transition from other things we were doing and making it easier for our customers to have all our services in one platform and create a super app.”
“Before Gokada ventured into ride-hailing in Lagos, people questioned us. When we entered the delivery space, it was the same question people asked. They said we didn’t have the experience. But today, if you look at it critically, we’ve changed this market in a different manner,” Mr Goel said.
Following the death of its founder, Mr Fahim Saleh, the leadership of the company fell into the hands of Mr Goel who has grown the company’s volume by 300 per cent in the last six months while revenue increased in 10-folds within the past year.
