- Agbero Demands N500 from Gokada, OPay and Max.ng Riders
A video circulating on social media highlighted some of the challenges faced by the new motorbike hailing companies operating in Lagos.
The video shows Area Boys, also know as Agberos, stopping riders of Oride, Gokada, and MAX.ng operating around Ojuelegba area of the state to demand N500 –Agbero daily ticket fee.
Olamide, a passenger of one of the riders, took to her twitter handle @olamideyelo after her encounter with the Area Boys, she said her motorbike was stopped and asked to pay N500 ticket fee, an amount he refused to pay considering they were charging traditional motorbike N100 for the same ticket.
“Agberos right now stopping oride, gokada and MAX.ng bikes in Ojuelegba. They want the riders to pay N500 for a N100 ticket,” Olamide Egbayelo stated.
She later blamed Lagos State Government for failing to manage or even eradicate these Agberos over the years. According to her, the state is not ready for business.
This new development may hurt business development in the start if not checked given the amount being invested by foreign investors into motorbike businesses in recent months.
OPay, the owner of Oride, just raised $50 million from Chinese investors to expand operations in Nigeria and across Africa. The same company is facilitating payments and service delivery across the nation with over 40,000 agents and daily transaction volumes of $5 million.
Similarly, MAX.ng raised $7 million investment fund to expand its operation to waterways and offer boat service to people in the state in an effort to ease traffic gridlock that has cost businesses and government over N6 trillion across all sectors.
Another motorbike hailing company, Gokada raised $5.3 million in the first half of the year to further deepen its presence in Lagos and Nigeria at large.
But with the intermittent harassment and obstruction of riders plying the state, these new startups my start losing customers as well as revenue as passengers are generally wary of the Agberos who can get really violent and wreak havoc at any time.
While these companies are creating jobs and empowering riders with relevant training to ensure they are employable, certain reports are saying Lagos State Government is not generating reasonable revenue from motorbike operators as most of them registered outside the state, Ogun State to be precise. Another issue that needs to be addressed by both the regulators and operators.
In fact, a recent report by The Nation revealed that riders of these motorbike-hailing companies were sometimes harassed by Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS) over outside of state registration. Suggesting this might be responsible for state government silence regarding the constant harassments.
