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Bolt, an Estonian ride-hailing company is expanding its offerings in Nigeria to include food delivery. This was made known as a job ad on the company’s website

“We are launching our new food delivery service and we are looking for a Restaurant Sales Manager who can help in establishing partnerships with local businesses.”

Earlier this week, IFC, a member of the World Bank Group announced that it is investing €20 million in Bolt to help expand its access to mobility and delivery services in underserved urban areas in Africa and Eastern Europe including in South Africa, Nigeria, and Ukraine. This will create earning opportunities and improve access to safer and more accessible transportation in emerging economies.

Since the pandemic, many businesses added food delivery to their model. In Nigeria, the food delivery market attracted a lot of attention during the lockdown with companies like Jumia introducing Jumia foods and Gokada switching to food delivery since the okada ban in Lagos, Nigeria. Jumia records that food orders grew 30% month-on-month.

According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Lagos residents spent ₦830 billion ($2 billion) eating out in 2019; representing 34% of total food expenditure. This goes to show that the food delivery service in Nigeria is a thriving market, large enough for Bolt to be competing with Jumia and Gokada.

Bolt currently offers food delivery services in 16 countries and 33 cities across the world. Since Bolt already has an established network of registered drivers in Nigeria, breaking into the country’s market with this new service will be rather seamless.

Another competitor for Bolt would have been Uber, but Uber’s food delivery service, Uber eats is not available in Nigeria yet. Even though Uber’s food is popular across the globe.

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