COVID-19: OPay Suspends Ride-Hailing Services
OPay has suspended its ride-hailing services in Nigeria, citing the harsh business environment and the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19.
The company said the decision would affect services such as ORide, OCar, and OExpress.
The firm, in a statement on Thursday, said it was changing its business focus from rides to other promising areas like the e-commerce space.
The statement said, “We can confirm that some of our business units, including the ride-hailing services, ORide, OCar, as well as our logistics service OExpress will be put on pause. This is largely due to the harsh business conditions which have affected many Nigerian companies, including ours, during this COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown, and government ban.
“Globally, ride-sharing businesses have been heavily impacted by the pandemic. But several months ago, foreseeing this issue, OPay had already taken preemptive steps to restructure our business focus away from rides. It is worthy to note that this final restructuring has minimal impact on OPay as a whole business.”
The company noted that ride-sharing was only one of its diversified businesses in Nigeria, adding that it had been investing in the financial and technology sectors.
“During the pandemic, we have seen continued demand for our offline mobile money agency, and online digital payment, which remain the core of our business.
“From January to April 2020, for example, we witnessed a 44 percent growth on offline and online transaction value even in the midst of the pandemic and lockdown. This is a testament to the high demand for flexible and easy financial services by Nigerians. Opay remains one of the most well-funded and profitable mobile money platforms in Nigeria, and we will continue to do more for our customers,” the statement added.
Ayooluwa Joshua