Uber May Quit Nigeria After 12 Years Amid Global Restructuring

By Adedapo Adesanya

Ride-hailing giant Uber has announced plans to restructure its operations in the Nigerian market after 12 years, as part of wider plans to reduce operations globally.

The mobility company announced plans to cut about 3,300 jobs worldwide, or roughly 10 per cent of its global workforce, as part of a major restructuring that could have implications for its operations in Nigeria and other markets.

The company said Wednesday that the job cuts were part of a plan to simplify its corporate structure, reduce management layers and redirect resources towards its core ride-hailing, delivery and autonomous vehicle businesses.

Uber came into Nigeria in July 2014 as its first West African market, and over the last 12 years, the company has expanded into Nigerian cities, including Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Kano, Enugu and Uyo.

According to its chief executive, Mr Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s rapid expansion over the past five years had created excessive complexity within the company, including additional management layers, fragmented responsibilities and slower decision-making.

“Today, we’re making a number of significant organisational changes across Uber,” Mr Khosrowshahi said in a message to employees.

“We are removing layers, simplifying team structures, refining our global location strategy, and focusing our people and investments against the biggest opportunities ahead of us,” he said.

Uber said employees whose positions were affected had already been notified, except in countries where labour regulations require formal procedures before dismissals can take effect.

The restructuring will reduce the number of employees who are seven or more layers below the chief executive by 20 per cent, while the number of small teams with only one or two members will be nearly halved.

The company is also combining its delivery operations across restaurants, retail and its Direct white-label delivery business. Some engineering and science teams will also be merged.

Uber’s global workforce is expected to fall to just under 30,000 after the restructuring, marking its largest round of job cuts since the company eliminated about 6,700 positions during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

This development comes amid several challenges facing e-hailing firms in the country especially with recent developments involving their operations at Nigerian airports which Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) previously said it was working with relevant stakeholders to establish a framework for their operations.

It is not immediately clear if this was a contributing factor to the possible exit, but Uber said savings from the restructuring would be reinvested in growth, innovation and its future mobility ambitions, particularly autonomous vehicles.

The company plans to invest more than $10 billion in expanding its robotaxi operations and aims to offer the service in at least 15 cities this year.