Gokada suspends services across Lagos for 2 weeks

Lagos-based on-demand motorcycle taxi-hailing app, Gokada has suspended its services. According to a statement sent out to users on Wednesday, August 14th Gokada said the compulsory break would last for 12 days beginning from Wednesday, August 14 to Sunday, August 25.

“We are dedicated to rewriting the ills the motorcycle taxis represent. This has nudged us to take this compulsory break of 12 days which begins Today, Wednesday, August 14th, 2019 to the 25th August 2019,” it said.

“We will be back Monday, August 26th, with retrained drivers who are safety conscious, clean, courteous and are better with driving and navigation.

“Other features to expect include better traffic law-abiding pilots, brand new bikes amongst other things.

“We are deliberate in our commitment to revamping the narrative of transportation.”

Fahim Saleh, Gokada CEO, said the company has failed in some ways despite succeeding in others.

“Increased competition, regulatory hurdles, and operational issues have forced us to make this decision. We thank all our loyal users and are truly sorry for this inconvenience,”

In a statement on his Medium page, Saleh said

“Gokada was started to change the perception of what the bike taxi could be in terms of safety, convenience, and transparency. In many ways, we’ve succeeded but we have also failed. We can only win by doing right to our customers and our pilots.”

The company, which started operations in February 2018, said it was already completing 5,000 rides a day during its one-year anniversary.

It recently raised $5.3 million in a Series A fundraiser.

Despite being a new enterprise, the motorcycle taxi-hailing space has witnessed rapid expansion with the entry of  O’Ride and Maxng.