Sveiki.
Victoria from Techpoint here,
Here’s what I’ve got for you today:
- Bolt slashes fares but drivers aren’t having it
- Building a text-to-speech AI with Nigerian accent
- PaidHR’s EWA product sees growth
Bolt slashes fares but drivers aren’t having it
On Sunday, I booked a Bolt ride, added a stop, and the driver immediately hit me with some gist — Bolt had slashed fares by almost 50%, and my final fare wouldn’t update after the stop.
I was sceptical because I had checked Uber first (it was cheaper, but no drivers were available), so I went with Bolt. The driver swore that since Bolt had cut prices, the system wasn’t adjusting fares properly for multiple stops. He even suggested I pay extra if the fare didn’t update. We ended up making a bet. Spoiler alert: the fare updated, and we had a good laugh.
But ride-hailing drivers aren’t laughing. Turns out, Bolt actually did slash fares, and drivers are pissed. According to Technext, drivers in Lagos under the Amalgamated Union of App-based Transporters of Nigeria (AUATON) are ready to shut down the app in protest. They say this 50% fare cut is wrecking their earnings, and they’re fed up with Bolt, Uber, inDrive, and Rida playing games with their money.
Many drivers first noticed the fare drop last Friday and asked Bolt what was up. Bolt told them that some group of drivers had asked for lower fares. Nobody believes that. Drivers are calling it pure nonsense, with one bluntly saying, “No driver in their right mind would ask for a fare cut. It’s ridiculous.”
Now, there’s talk that Bolt is creating fake driver groups just to make it seem like the price cut was requested. And drivers are not having it.
Thing is, Bolt isn’t the only one dropping fares. Uber and inDrive have been quietly reducing prices too — but in smaller bits. However, word on the block is that Bolt just woke up one morning and slashed fares like a thief in the night, and now drivers are struggling.
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Why is this happening? Well, analysts think it’s all about Nigeria’s declining purchasing power — inflation is crazy, the naira is weak, and people are cutting costs. Ride-hailing apps are making fares cheaper to attract more riders, but in the process, drivers are making way less money.
Bolt’s Nigeria GM, Osi Oguah, admitted they made some changes but denied the 50% claim. He said it was meant to boost demand, help drivers make more in the long run, and reduce idle time.
Now, a strike is on the table. Many drivers are calling for a total shutdown of the Bolt app to force the company to listen. Some are even saying Bolt should reduce its commission instead of slashing fares.
The union wants all drivers — whether they’re in the union or not — to stop working. They believe if every driver boycotts the app, Bolt and the others will feel the heat in a matter of hours.
So what next? Drivers are planning to flood Bolt with complaints and stage a protest. No date yet, but once it’s announced, expect major disruptions.
Building a text-to-speech AI with Nigerian accent
It’s no news that finding a good text-to-speech AI that actually sounds Nigerian is a struggle. Last year, I sent my recordings to an AI company to replicate my accent, but somehow, I ended up sounding South African. So, when I came across Bolu’s story on YarnGPT, an AI that reads text aloud in a Nigerian accent, I was impressed.
At first, it might not seem like a big deal — AI voices are everywhere. But consider this: Saheed Azeez, a Nigerian university student with limited resources, built it from scratch. Plus, capturing the nuances of a Nigerian accent isn’t easy. It’s a technical headache, and even Azeez admits it wasn’t a walk in the park.
He got the push to build YarnGPT after seeing the buzz around Naijaweb, another project he worked on. But there was another reason — failure. Azeez had applied for a job at a Nigerian AI company but didn’t do well in the interview. Instead of sulking, he decided to level up his skills, and YarnGPT became that project.
One major challenge? Finding quality Nigerian voice data. Nollywood movies seemed like a goldmine, but they weren’t much help — their audio quality was poor, and subtitles were a mess. To work around this, Azeez mixed them with high-quality datasets from Hugging Face, an open-source AI platform.
Then came training the AI model. Without a GPU, he had to rely on Google Colab’s cloud computing services, which cost him $50 (₦80,000). Unfortunately, the model flopped, and the money went down the drain. But instead of giving up, he stumbled upon Oute AI, which had a more efficient text-to-speech method called autoregressive processing. It basically predicts words one at a time, improving the final result.
Interestingly, Saheed had a chat with Bolu about how the platform works. Read his latest for all the deets here.
PaidHR’s EWA product sees growth
PaidHR’s earned wage access (EWA) product is seeing massive growth, with over ₦150 million disbursed to more than 2,000 users in 2024. That’s a 5,900% increase from last year.
A lot of employees don’t want to wait until payday to access their money—bills, rent, and emergencies don’t wait. That’s why PaidHR launched EWA, allowing workers to access part of their salary before payday. In 2024, the top three reasons people used EWA were bills, transport, and rent.
In Nigeria, most employers pay salaries once a month, but workers are asking for more flexible payment options. EWA is stepping in as a better alternative to payday loans, which often come with high interest rates and debt traps. Unlike loans, EWA doesn’t require credit checks—just access to what employees have already earned.
Not everyone thinks EWA is perfect. Some worry it could lead to bad financial habits, with employees constantly withdrawing early and struggling to manage money long-term.
To avoid over-reliance, employees can’t withdraw more than 50% of their earned wages at a time. Plus, PaidHR has teamed up with a financial education firm to help workers learn smart money management.
With competitors like Salad Africa and Notch HR also pushing EWA awareness, one thing is clear—Nigerian workers want more control over their pay, and EWA is here to stay.
In case you missed them
What I’m watching
Opportunities
- FairMoney is looking for Business Operations Manager. Apply here.
- Paga is hiring for several roles, including CRO, Treasury Manager, and Doroki Growth Manger. Apply here.
- Meta is looking for a Public Policy Manager in Anglophone West Africa. Apply here.
- MasterCard is hiring a Manager for Product Management in Emerging Markets Acceptance Solutions. Apply here.
- AltSchool Africa is hiring several instructors. Apply here.
- Fast Forward Livestock Innovation Lab, in partnership with GIZ-SAIS, offers innovators the chance to turn their prototypes into commercially viable solutions for the livestock value chain, with up to ₦10 million in funding, expert mentorship, and guidance from an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Apply here.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) is recruiting suitably qualified candidates to fill several roles. Apply here.
- Glovo is looking to fill certain roles in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Morocco. Apply here.
- Kuda is looking to fill different roles. Apply here.
- Paystack is hiring for several roles. Apply here.
- Techpoint Africa is hiring a Market Research and Innovation Analyst. Apply here.
- Moniepoint is hiring for several roles. Apply here.
- Celebrate the New Year with delightful stories like Smart Couples. Call 421 on your Airtel line now — you won’t be charged! Alternatively, call 07080601391 at your network’s regular rate. Learn more here.
- Follow Techpoint Africa’s WhatsApp channel to stay on top of the latest trends and news in the African tech space here.
Have a lovely Tuesday!
Victoria Fakiya for Techpoint Africa.