The pioneer of motorbike ride-hailing in Nigeria, MAX Okada, says its entry into Ibadan will enable “a good number of unemployed youths that need to be empowered to become individuals who contribute to economic development.”
MAX Okada recently began operations in Nigeria’s third most populous city using their characteristic black and yellow motorbikes. Its CEO, Tayo Bamiduro said, “There is an obvious demand for a faster and safer means of transportation all around the country, and MAX is positioned to ease such demand, one city at a time. Our model is based on building social impact and sustainability across board.”
Responding to Tribune Online’s inquiry on MAX Okada’s entry to Ibadan, Bamiduro said the move was not as a result of the Okada ban in Lagos.
According to him, “Ibadan has always been part of MAX expansion roadmap, launching Ibadan has been in the works for a while as it is a unique market with a lot of potentials. We had been in the process of setup and were on ground long before the ban. Before the restriction, we had MAX present in two other cities outside Lagos (Akure and Kano) and are going to be launching the MAX product in other Nigerian states before the end of the year, as part of our strategic objectives.”
He added that MAX Okada had a number of innovative transport solutions in operation and in the works.
“We are pioneering electric mobility in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. We launched our MAX E series 1, in the fourth quarter of 2019 and we are currently in partnership with major stakeholders in the energy space to deploy charging stations in certain communities across the nation.
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“We are focused to continuously provide last-mile delivery services to Lagosian and stick to our expansion roadmap to other cities where we can empower as many drivers as possible to have financial freedom on a journey to own their own asset.
“Also, we are beyond just a ride-hailing platform; we are predominantly a company building new technologies to solve day-to-day problems faced by Nigerians and even the government, mostly in the area of transportation.”
Regarding competition from other motorbike ride-hailing services in Ibadan, the MAXOkada CEO said, “As the pioneer of motorbike ride-hailing in Nigeria, we have gotten used to having competition around, this for us plays to our advantage by making us stronger as a brand with a good market positioning. We are very well known not to compromise on quality and safety and that for us will always push us ahead of the competition. We are also the only ride-hailing platform existing that empowers drivers with an opportunity to own their bikes at the moment.”
To enjoy a ride on the MAX platform, download the MAXOkada app on Google Play or App store and sign up.
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