2016 was the year of ride-sharing startups in Africa
The future of cities in Africa has been determined by this year 2016. For most cities across the world, transportation system is one of the things that shape how a city ultimately pans out to be. For African cities, ride-sharing has already made its mark.
With over 55 ride-sharing companies according to this Techcabal report, major cities in Africa will not remain the same again. Mid this year, the big bull in this kraal, Uber launched in Uganda. Even though there were already about 3 ride-sharing startups in the country, it was Uber that seriously validated this market segment in Uganda.
In other Cities across the continent, Uber isn’t the only player. In Lagos for instance, there are 14 ride-sharing apps, Nairobi with 11, Cape Town with 7, Casablanca 5 and Cair 4. Aside Uber, TaxiDiali, Ousta, Taxify, Careem are some of the other big players. Safaricom’s little taxi is said to be expanding in 3 more other countries next year.
It’s not hard to see why ride-sharing apps have reached product-market fit so quickly in Africa. Transportation is a huge headache. Kampala for instance has little if not non-existent well-regulated public transport system. Public transportation in-between city suburbs has been left to rogue rowdy Taxi/Matatu guys. These chaps just charge whatever they like whenever they like. They don’t have structured dependable fares or routes. It’s very chaotic. And when you want to charter a private vehicle, it was equally difficult before Uber. “Special hire” guys just guess the fare to your destination and you have to bare with it. Now you simply hail an Uber for a less than the price you previously hard to remit with “Special hire” guys. So these startup are actually solving pain problems affecting millions of people on a daily basis.
Aside ride-sharing apps, Fintech is of course unstoppable as I earlier wrote. There are over 64 Fintech startups across the continent. There’s even a dedicated Fintech conference now you can check out at http://www.fintech-africa.com/. Still majorly handling money transfers and remittances, Fintech could be the power horse that powers transactions from other sectors such as ride-sharing and e-commerce. So we are really moving in the right direction and I can’t wait to see what 2017 has in store.
To ardent followers of my blog, Merry Christmas and Happy 2017.
