Following the ban of the activities of motorcycles, okada and tricycles in some areas of Lagos, bike-hailing company, Gokada has fired up to 70% of its staff.
The report already confirmed by Gokada CEO, Fahim Saleh, started as a rumor on Tuesday.
According to Wee Tracker, Saleh announced the company has been forced to lay off most of its riders and staff as a way to stave off losing any more money as a result of the ban.
This is often the first stage of a withdrawal from the market and a loss of revenue to the economy.
With 10,000 staffs (excluding indirect jobs), this will mean the startup sacked about 7,000 of its workers. And this decision is said to have come two days after the announcement of the ban.
With a total investment of $5.3 million, Gokada raised the least funding of the 3 prominent bike hailing companies in the state. Max.ng raised $8.1 million while Oride’s parent company, Opay raised $170m.
According to reports, when the startup raised the funds, CEO, Fahim Saleh, used a bulk of it to get over 2,000 bikes with each bike cost about N542,250 ($1500). A quick calculation will bring the entire figure to about $3m, which is about 57% of the entire funding.
