29 February 2024
Bolt, the Estonian ride-hailing company, is launching in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana, and will compete in a market with only one other ride-hailing player: inDrive.
Bolt will not charge its its driver the standard commission, usually between 15%-20% of the ride fee, for six months as part of its rollout. The company said so far, 100 drivers have been onboarded.
Bolt’s launch in Botswana continues the company’s expansion in southern Africa. It has launched in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia in the last six months. Botswana is the 14th African country that Bolt has branched into since first launching in South Africa in 2016.
“We are thrilled to introduce our services in Botswana,” said Laurent Koerge, head of expansion at Bolt.
“Our aim is to increase earnings for our drivers while fostering high demand through competitive pricing.”
Bolt enters a Botswana ride-hailing market ripe for growth but also presents a challenging operating environment for ride-hailing platforms. inDrive was the first platform to test out the Botswana market, launching in the country five years ago. and has remained the only platform in the country until now.
Although it has blown up in popularity, perhaps showing the amount of demand for ride-hailing in the country, inDrive has faced numerous challenges, including allegations of driver misconduct as well as pushback from public transport operators.
Bolt has features such as an SOS button, which allows riders and drivers to contact the police instantly; driver unmatching, a mechanism that prevents future matching between drivers and riders; and a “share my ride” option which will allow both parties to share real-time ride information. The platform will also require drivers to have all the requisite licenses issued by local regulators. Through these features, the company hopes to address issues of safety and misconduct that have plagued ride-hailing in Botswana.
In early 2023, Bolt announced its plan to invest over €500 million in the African market, including creating job opportunities to over 300,000 driver partners. The company operates in 45 countries globally, serving over 150 million customers with over 3 million drivers.
Source: https://techcabal.com/2024/02/28/bolt-botswana-launch/
