Bolt, the ride-hailing platform once known as Taxify, has stated plans of expanding further than the eight cosmopolitans of the country that it already operates in.
According to Kenneth Micah, Bolt general manager for East Africa, the company is happy with the performance of the app in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu, Eldoret, Naivasha, Kakamega and Thika and as such is looking at the possibility of moving into other towns brimming with potential.
The company looks to add more towns by Christmas in order to capitalize on the festive season.
“I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the Kenyan market to our business. We are conducting market research on which towns are viable. We are looking at a lot of things like employment levels as well as customer tastes and preferences,” he said.
The recent move by the company to hike fares, he said, was after factoring in macroeconomic factors like inflation and increasing costs of service.
“We are well aware that affordability is key. Before we make such decisions, we consider a lot of factors like the drivers’ take home, the customers willingness to pay. We are very particular about netting more and more repeat customers and we cannot do that if we fail to give the riders value for their money,” added Micah.
Explaining the change of name to Bolt from Taxify, the GM said it was as a result of offering more services such as boda-boda, necessitating the move from taxify, which was tailor made for the traditional taxi business, adding that it has been seamless so far.
