Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwoolu has just come up with an initiative, LagRide in the transportation sector of the state, meant to make transportation easier and classy for Lagosians.
The Sanwo-Olu administration recently imported 1,000 classy SUVs from CIG motors as they were seen parading Lagos a few days ago.
Convoy of LagRide Cars Spotted On Third Mainland Bridge
A convoy of blue and white-painted cars belonging to the new e-hailing service of the Lagos State government, LagRide were spotted on the Third Mainland Bridge on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/IAcmaKVemO
— Punch Newspapers (@MobilePunch) February 21, 2022
It is indeed a laudable project from the governor but the processes involved in the initiative may not allow it to see the light of the day.
Already in Lagos State and other parts of Nigeria, we have ride-hailing services such as Bolt, Uber, In-driver and before any other ride-hailing project can make waves, it definitely has to conquer the previous ones but LagRide doesn’t seem to be the one.
Ride-Hailing: How Realistic Is LagRide Compared To Bolt, Uber?
For the existing ride-hailing services, if you own your car, you can easily register on their platforms and start earning. In a situation where you got a car on hire purchase, in most cases, you are required to pay some amount every week which ranges from N25,000-N30,000 for not more than two or three years to own the car.
It is always within this range because cars used for this business are not exotic vehicles, it’s not advisable to make use of exotic vehicles to run the business.
For LagRide, incoming drivers are required to make a down payment of over N1.8 Million then a daily payment of atleast N8,000 which translates to over N60,000 every week. This will be done for four years before you can own the vehicle.
Brand Spur Nigeria understands that the brand new LagRide cars range between N10 Million to N13 Million naira.
Although the cars are very classy, beautiful, and exotic for a business like this, it’s is not realistic. One who has N1.8 million will definitely buy a neatly used Nigerian vehicle needed for the business. There is also no way one can comfortably pay N8,000 every day of the week for four years, it’s not realistic at all.
Meanwhile, for drivers using Uber, the ride-hailing service takes between 20% and 30% of the amount paid for every successful trip. That implies that the drivers would have 70% to 80% of the amount paid.
For Bolt, the ride-hailing service takes only 15% to 20% of the amount paid for every successful trip. This implies that drivers have between 80% to 85% of the amount paid.
Though the LagRide is a laudable scheme but may be another project that will be flushed down the drain because going by the processes involved, it’s definitely dead on arrival.
