Uber, Bolt Technologies Providing Jobs For Unemployed Youths – Abuja Drivers

Drivers of Bolt and Uber Technologies, Inc. have called on unemployed youths in the country to take advantage of the employment opportunity offered by the ride-hailing apps instead of queueing up in the job markets.

Uber and Bolt are multinational ride-hailing companies offering services that include peer-to-peer ridesharing, ride service hailing and food delivery among others.

In 2019 the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige had warned that unemployment rate in the country may hit 33.5% by 2020 considering the state of the economy, while the consumer expectation survey for 2020 conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) shows that consumers expect unemployment to increase in the 12 months period of the year.

Femi Julius, an Uber driver in Abuja told THE WHISTLER that the business is very profitable and gives high returns compared to the conventional taxi business, adding that the business is also less stressful and does not require much experience.

“The business is far more profitable than the conventional taxi, you don’t have to stress yourself as the app will readily fetch you customers.

“You don’t have to drive around if you’re not ready to work, you just go offline. However as soon as you are online, you don’t decline a request for more than four times otherwise you will be blocked automatically.”

He advised unemployed youths and underpaid employees to harness the opportunity as he said that individuals who do not own cars can rent and only remit N20,000 to the car owners weekly out of the much they would make. 

Julius who said he also subscribed to the Bolt App told the website that both Uber and Bolt charge 25% and 15% respectively as commission for every trip made, adding that for cash trips, the firms have an account which their commission will be paid into, as the drivers who have outstanding balance with the firms usually pay on Monday.  

“The business is lucrative and drivers who own their cars enjoy it the most, but even when you don’t have your own car you remit N20,000 weekly to the owner.

For the operators, they have their own percentage of every request. While Uber takes 25%, Bolt take 15% for every order.

“For a cash trip, the operators issue a card trip once you make a cash trip, they will deduct it from the net trip of your cashless transactions.

“If all your trips are cash, you will be required to pay to an account. Bolt basically pay its drivers Mondays, that is if you have balance with them.

“However, if after reconciling the accounts you turn out to owe them you repay every Monday or Tuesday.”

The driver however said that Uber has a more complicated process of registration, while the requirement for Bolt are just the vehicle particulars, third party insurance and driver’s license.

A Bolt driver, Emmanuel Ameh, said his daily income is over N10,000 , adding that it could be higher depending on the driver’s ability to honour requests.

On the issue of safety, Ameh stressed that the ride hailing business is cheaper and more secured for Nigerians adding that the cars are tracked as soon as there is a report of theft or abuse.