On Wednesday morning, commuters opening their apps across Lagos and Kampala were greeted by a blank screen and three unceremonious words: “No trips available”.
After 12 years of navigating gridlock on the Third Mainland Bridge and a decade in Kampala, Uber folded its hand in Nigeria and Uganda.
The shutdown landed on the exact morning chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi culled roughly 3,300 corporate jobs, or about 10% of Uber’s global staff, flattening management layers and redirecting capital towards autonomous vehicle infrastructure in core Western metros.
African tech watchers had seen a similar pattern across the region: Uber pulled out of Côte d’Ivoire in late 2025, left Tanzania in early 2026, and quietly decommissioned its budget UberX tier in South Africa. Corporate statements pointed to an ongoing review of capital allocation, but the core failure lay in the economics of app-based four-wheel passenger transport, which had severely deteriorated under Nigeria’s macroeconomic adjustments.
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