By MONITOR

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Motorcycle and car ride-hailing company SafeBoda plans to terminate operations in Nigeria at the end of the month, to concentrate on its more profitable business in Uganda.

The Ugandan firm ventured into the Nigerian market in May 2020. It also had operations in Kenya since 2018, which it terminated two years later.

Read: Hundreds to lose jobs as SafeBoda exits Kenya

Alastair Sussock, the SafeBoda co-founder and chief executive officer, told Monitor at the weekend that at country-level, Uganda generates significant cash flow and is moving quickly to full profitability.

“The unit value of our services [in Uganda] are significantly higher than in Nigeria and our brand has deep roots. In Uganda, our boda, car [core transport] also work well with our parcel delivery, payments and financial services products. We see growing cross sell from our core transport use case,” he said, noting that Uganda is a huge market with more than 1.5 million rides happening every day in greater Kampala alone. 

The company in September launched a new stream - SafeCar - which has seen a 40 percent increase in weekly growth.  

Mr Sussock indicated that the “SafeCar service is growing very fast and our drivers love the new car community we are building”.

SafeBoda had launched in Ibadan, Nigeria, after a ban on okadas or bodas in Lagos. 

However, at the weekend, Mr Sussock indicated that the okada business in Nigeria were very challenging, which even if they are positive, the margins were too thin. 

SafeBoda had a in a statement last week said the exit from Nigeria had been informed by the state of okada transport system that was not economically viable yet it requires significant investment at a challenging time in the global economic landscape. 

SafeBoda, recently secured funding from Yamaha Motor Company and other existing investors, saying it will focus on enhancing its core transportation offer in Uganda after exiting from Nigeria.