Gokada, a motorbike hailing service, has partially shut down operations to restrategize after their CEO faced ‘operational’ hurdles during a ride.
The temporary shut down takes effect from Wednesday, August 14th, 2019 to Monday, August 26th.
Checks by Business Insider SSA on Wednesday, showed that the platform is undergoing maintenance work.
“Gokada is currently undergoing a scheduled relaunch of our service. We will be back online better than ever, August 26th! Sorry for the inconvenience,” a message on the App reads.
In a medium post, Gokada CEO and Co-founder, Fahim Saleh, said, “all Gokada pilots will be off the roads and the Gokada app will be shut down,” within the period.
Saleh said he was disappointed when a trip of 5 mins turned out to take more than 15 mins from the Mainland Bridge to Victoria Island.
Our service will be temporarily unavailable from today till the 26th of August. We will be back soon but bigger and better this time. We thank you all for understanding. pic.twitter.com/W3JghVOo3g
— Gokada (@GokadaNG) August 14, 2019
While narrating his ugly experience with a Gokada rider, he asked, “How could I be the CEO of Gokada, the company that pioneered motorcycle ride-hailing in Nigeria and be experiencing this?
“…I was disappointed in Gokada but most of all, I was disappointed in myself. I told the pilot to pull over to the side of the road, I would hop over the median and wait for an Uber. ‘This is what it has come to,’ I thought.”
Other bike-hailing services are not left out. The problem Saleh faced is what a number of Nigerians have testified to while using various ride-hailing platforms. This is even with Google Maps for navigation.
Beyond navigation issues, some drivers have been known to take longer routes to their respective destinations in a bid to maximise profit. This has led to issues with riders on the apps.
Saleh said the company will launch Gokada 2.0 to address some of the challenges faced by riders on the platform including better navigation use.
