How Developed is transport mobility in Nigeria?

Transport Mobility is a hot topic in Nigeria due to the influx of people who commute to various destinations every day. The transport demand in metropolitan Lagos is estimated at 7 million to 10 million passenger trips daily. Over 95% were by road, primarily by private cars, buses, taxis, and commercial motorcycles. A significant percentage of 80% and 85% were made by public transport. 

The horizon of the mobility sector has broadened in this new age of technology that mobility startups have joined the space. Startups like Treepz and Shuttlers have taken a shot at this sector to make transportation easier. With your smartphone, you are open to a wide range of transport services.

About Treepz

Treepz is a digital platform that allows customers to book daily rides along set routes. It was founded in 2019 with the brand name Plentywaka before having a name change at its September relaunch. The transport mobility platform acts as an aggregator for bus travel firms in 21 Nigerian cities, allowing them to replace manual ticketing and servicing with digitalised offers and services.

The business received $1.2 million  in initial funding earlier this year, and announced the acquisition of Ghanaian startup Stabus as it began its pan-African growth. This added in helping the startup have a strong year as well as its acceptance into the Techstars Toronto accelerator program.

It has now raised a total of US$2.8 million, bringing its seed round to a total of US$2.8 million. Jedar Capital, a fund located in Egypt, also took part in the round with follow-on investments from existing investors.

Treepz’s CEO and co-founder, Onyeka Akumah, said the cash would be used to rapidly expand the company’s on-demand ride-sharing and intercity bus ticketing services in Africa. This is already happening, with Uganda’s Ugabus becoming the company’s second acquisition of the year.

Ugabus, which was founded in 2016, now has 70% of all bus operators in the East African country on its network, which has built-in mobile money technology for easy payments. The deal’s terms were not published, but Ugabus will now be known as Treepz Uganda, and its CEO, Ronald Hakiza, will serve as Treepz Uganda’s country manager.

“Everyone at Treepz is excited to welcome the team at Ugabus to the Treepz family. This has been in the works for some time, along with our deal that happened in Ghana a few months ago, and so we are really happy about closing the deal successfully. East Africa is an exciting target for Treepz and from Uganda, we would work with this new team led by Hakiza in Uganda to explore our growth plans across the neighbouring countries as we aim towards building the largest shared mobility platform in Sub-Saharan Africa”, CEO Akumah said.

About Shuttlers

Shuttlers, a startup that specialises in tech-enabled scheduled bus sharing, recently received $1.6 million in seed funding from a number of investors after years of self-financing the company. The funding will enable a quick expansion both within and outside of Nigeria. 

Shuttlers was launched in 2016 by CEO Damilola Olokesusi to address the issue of inefficient transport mobility expenses in Lagos, Nigeria. Shuttlers provides enterprises with greater mobility options for their employees through its ridesharing platform.

“Our mission is to transform the way people commute around the world by building a global partner network and connecting communities of shuttlers like we are presently doing in Lagos, Nigeria”, Olokesusi said.

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