Uber, the global ride-hailing firm has launched in Ivory Coast’s commercial capital Abidjan. This brings the number of cities Uber operates in Africa to 16 cities in 8 countries.
The ride-hailing firm said in a statement that Abidjan, a commercial hub of nearly 5 million people, was a “perfect fit”, adding that more than 50,000 people had tried to use its app there in the past year.
“This means that for the thousands of taxi operators in Abidjan, there will be new clients for every single driver, in addition to the number they already have now,” Alon Lits, Uber’s general manager for sub-Saharan Africa, said.
Uber has experimented with new services in Africa, including ferries across the lagoon in Nigeria’s megacity of Lagos.
An Uber executive told Reuters back in June that it was also in talks with regulators in Senegal about launching services in the capital Dakar.
The ride-hailing firm is facing competition from Estonia-based Bolt, which takes a smaller cut from drivers and plans to double its service in South Africa.
