KENYA – Bolt, a ride-hailing Taxi app, has opened its Africa Head Office in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, to leverage the city’s strategic position to serve as a regional hub for its operations in Africa.
The office which is located in Riverside Drive will act as the regional nerve center of the company whose operations in Africa cuts through seven countries including; Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Tunisia.
This forms part of the company’s continued growth and investment strategy in the region as it seeks to deepen its presence in Africa in a unified approach. The office will provide an opportunity for Bolt to run its operations in a more integrated and cohesive manner across the region.
Speaking during the official opening, Bolt Regional Director and Interim VP for Rides, Paddy Partridge noted that the investment is significant in strengthening Bolt’s presence in Africa as a region considering the country’s strategic location and infrastructural advancement.
“This investment is strategic for us as it will enable us to run and coordinate operations seamlessly across Africa in an integrated manner. It also provides us access to the great COMESA regional markets which we are keen to expand,” said Paddy Partridge.
“Africa as a region shares a lot in common, and Kenya acts as a great gateway to the region. Its strategic location in the region and the available infrastructure has enabled us to grow tremendously in the East African market and we believe we can leverage this to still achieve more across the entire continent.”
The office will now host the company’s top-brass leadership overseeing operations across Africa including; Regional Director and Interim VP for Rides, Regional Manager for Ride-hailing, East Africa, Regional Marketing Manager, Africa, Senior Head of Public Policy and Legal Director for Africa.
The mobility company will still maintain its local offices in all of its markets to seamlessly coordinate its operations more personally.
Since its big round in January 2022 (US$709m), the ride-hailing global firm has been serving more consumers, adding more partners and establishing new business lines.
Currently, Bolt has a growing workforce of over 500 individuals looking after its operations, growth and excellence in the region creating earning opportunities for more than 400,000 drivers in more than 70 cities in Africa.
The Estonian mobility company’s first markets in Africa were South Africa and Nigeria in 2016. Then in 2017, Bolt entered Kenya and Ghana. Its other African markets are Tunisia, Tanzania and Uganda.
This is also coming months after the ride-hailing firm experienced operational difficulty in Tanzania. In April 2022, Bolt disclosed that it might switch off operations in the East African country.
Uber, its main rival in Africa and Europe had earlier suspended operation in the country due to the tough regulatory environment.
This adds to the increasing number of big tech companies opening their first African office in Kenya. Some notable mentions include Visa which launched its first African innovation hub in Kenya, ICANN announced Kenya as the host of one of Africa’s data centres and Google opened its first African Product Development Centre in Nairobi.
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