Barely a day after Gokada suspended its operations in Nigeria, research carried out by Nairametrics has revealed that the company’s temporary shutdown could be as a result of the targeted poaching of some of its riders and senior executives by the newcomer, ORide.
It was discovered that ORide poached some senior staff who occupied vital positions at Gokada, including its co-founder sometime this year – barely 3 months the former started operation.
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The Nigerian bike-hailing market currently has Max.ng, ORide and Gokada, competing for market share.
The bike-hailing business in Nigeria is a nascent market. However, it is currently experiencing a point and kill season with Gokada falling victim to ORide’s sword. The new entrant is on the offensive, aggressively recruiting experienced hands to accelerate its growth in the market. While this might look like a surprise move, it is however common for growing industries that require employees that are highly skilled.
Poached employees: Poaching is not new in the business world, it’s a method that even Nigerian plantain chips companies apply to conquer a market faster than the already existing players. ORide perfected this business strategy by poaching capable hands from Gokada.
- Awolowo Moses was the Co-founder/COO of Gokada but he is now the Director of Business Operations at ORide.
- Ebunoluwa Shipe served as the Head of Driver Support/Experience at Gokada but she now acts as the Senior Operations Manager at OPay.
- Awe Oluwakayode is a Senior Operations Manager at OPay but was previously the Drivers Acquisition and Road Operations Officer at Gokada.
- Meanwhile, Akinwale Afolabi, who left his position as Head, Marketing of Gokada in February 2019, joined OPay in May 2019 as the Senior Manager, Growth and Marketing.
Riders dumped Gokada for ORide? There are reports that riders of Gokada left the bike-hailing pioneer for ORide after the latter offered them better payment package.
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Nairametrics learnt that the riders were offered between N35,000 and N36,000 to join ORide. This incentive resulted into an exodus of Gokada’s riders, increasing the riders at ORide and enabling the company to meet demand during its promo run in June and July 2019.
Gokada isn’t the only victim of ORide’s onslaught. It was discovered that Jumia‘s dispatchers and Max.ng riders were also lured to join ORide with better incentives and different amount as sign-on fee.
Also, the RADP (Ringier Africa Digital Publishing) – the parent company of Pulse NG experienced the touch of ORide.
Why Jumia? ORide is a company owned by Opera, and the parent company has plans for the Quick Restaurants Service which Jumia is part of. If ORide could aggressively come for Gokada and Max.ng, then Jumia wouldn’t be spared of the onslaught.
Gokada’s stance: Gokada had chosen to cite improvement of service as reason for its ‘temporary’ exit, but companies are not known to close shop just to improve service or retrain staff for better customer experience. It is, however, left to be seen if Gokada is truly putting customers first or tending to its wounds.
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This is insightful reporting