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Uber In Africa: Partners With Kia Motors In Nigeria, Push For Law Change In S.A.

Uber In Africa: Partners With Kia Motors In Nigeria, Push For Law Change In S.A.

Uber, a San Francisco-based tech firm that allows users to summon rides using a smartphone app, is making inroad into major African cities since it launched in Johannesburg barely two years ago.

The company’s revolutionary way of making taxis accessible to anyone whenever needed has disrupted the cab industry across the world by conveniently connecting drivers with customers in the same area, significantly cutting transit times.

Uber’s model allows users to share rides and customers to pay for the services using their credit card directly to the company, which then remits a percentage to the drivers, who in most cases are independent car owners that might or may not be linked to any cab company or association.

The company has however faced a number of setbacks all over the world.

In Africa, Uber  had some 33 vehicles impounded in Cape town after taxi operators complained to local authorities of losing business to unlicensed Uber operators, while in Nairobi it had to adopt by allowing cash payments and mobile money because credit cards are not widely used in Kenya.

To increase its operation in Lagos, one of the most populated cities in Africa with nearly 40 million people, Uber has partnered with Kia Motors in a deal that will enable its drivers get cheaper new vehicles.

Fivefold

This is says the deal that will cut down payment on new cars by up to 55 percent to 95,000 naira ($477) from as much as 200,000 naira, was  likely to increase the number of Uber drivers in the Nigerian city fivefold to 3,000 by the end of 2016.

“Since we launched in Lagos just over a year ago, more than 600 job opportunities have been created using the application,” Uber’s general manager for sub-Saharan Africa, told Bloomberg in an interview in Lagos last week.

“That’s really just the beginning. We feel that the number can be well over 3,000 by the end of 2016.”

Poor mapping  and heavy traffic congestion in Lagos is however proving a tough nut to crack for Uber in Nigeria.

In South Africa, the internet ride-sharing service firm is lobbying for government to formally introduce a law that caters to transporters using technology, Fin24 Wire reported.

“Part of what we’re trying to push for is an amendment to that National Land and Transport Act to introduce a new standalone category,” Lits told Fin24 on Wednesday, a day after Uber presented its case to the transport committee in the South African parliament.

Uber’s e-hailing technology is not covered sufficiently in the current categories such as metered taxi and chartered service licenses, Lits said.

“A transport network operator can be someone who is using technology as lead generation,” He told Fin24.