Bolt Slams Brakes on 22 Nigerian Jobs in Major Layoff

Taxify company Bolt sacks 22 employees in Nigeria

In an attempt to restructure, technology-driven ride-hailing provider Bolt Nigeria has let go of twenty-two employees.

On Tuesday, May 7, the company's communications manager, Femi Adeyemo, reaffirmed this, highlighting that Bolt Nigeria is going through a reorganization process rather than financial challenges.

“22 people out of 45 from a department were relieved of their jobs, not nearly half as claimed by some reports.

“The department where it happened has 45 workers, not the whole Bolt. That number is not half of the workforce of Bolt,” he said.

“Bolt has never done and is not doing any layoffs, which implies massively downsizing the team because the company is struggling financially,” the e-hailing company then published a statement. We have decided to stop working with 22 employees in Nigeria after making a difficult decision.

“This decision comes as we have been going through the process of restructuring a considerable number of customer support and operational processes in the country. We have offered the people who will be leaving us severance packages that will support their transition to new career opportunities.

“This decision does not affect the quality of our products for riders and drivers. We see great potential in Nigeria, and we will stand by our investment commitments in all our African markets.”

Bolt, formerly known as Taxify, entered the Nigerian market in 2016 and has since grown to serve more than 150 million users across 500 cities and 45 countries.

It stated that more than 3.5 million partners—drivers and couriers—use the app to make a living today, with more than a million of them based in Africa alone.