After 12 years, the ride-hailing operator exits Nigeria, writes JOSHUA J. OMOJUWA
This morning I would have opened Uber and switched the payment method to cash before ordering a ride. If you are like me, that is how it works in Nigeria, unless you prefer to have that ‘cash or card?’ conversation. Or the one where the driver says nothing until the trip ends, then explains that the app price does not work for him.
After twelve years, Uber has wound down its Nigerian operations, effective 2 September. It cited a review of its investment focus across Africa. It left Uganda the same day, Tanzania in January after a standoff with regulators over fixed fares, and Côte d’Ivoire in 2025, surrendering Abidjan to Yango. Half the African footprint gone in under two years. On the same Wednesday it announced 3,300 job cuts, a tenth of its workforce, with the savings redirected towards driverless cars. Some of this week is not about us at all. But it is still worth asking why the numbers stopped working here so completely, and that question is about trust.
We blame them, but sometimes drivers have a strong case. Fuel subsidy removal in 2023 raised costs. They spent years contesting commissions of up to 25 per cent. They protested in 2017, in 2023, in 2025, and in July the Public Complaints Commission had to direct the FCT Administration to intervene. When they ask for cash, it is not so much an expression of suspicion of the passenger as arithmetic.
