Bolt Nigeria, a technology-centered ride-hailing company, stated on Tuesday that 22 employees were affected by its restructuring and were laid off.
Femi Adeyemo, the company’s Communications Manager, verified this information in a phone call on Tuesday.
Adeyemo stressed that Bolt Nigeria is not having financial problems but is actually going through a restructuring phase.
“22 people from a department of 45 were let go from their jobs, not almost half as some reports have claimed.
“The department where it happened has 45 workers, not the entire Bolt. That number is not half of Bolt's workforce,” he said.
“The impacted employees will receive extensive severance packages to help them transition to new career opportunities,” Adeyemo added.
Afterwards, the e-hailing company released a statement which said, “Bolt has never done and is not doing any layoffs, which implies massively downsizing the team because the company is struggling financially. We have made the difficult decision to discontinue collaboration with 22 employees in Nigeria.
“This decision comes as we have been going through the process of restructuring a considerable number of customer support and operational processes in the country. We have offered the people who will be leaving us severance packages that will support their transition to new career opportunities.
“This decision does not affect the quality of our products for riders and drivers. We see great potential in Nigeria, and we will stand by our investment commitments in all our African markets.
Bolt (formerly known as Taxify) entered the Nigerian market in 2016 and exceeded 150 million customers in over 45 countries and 500 cities.
It noted that it now has over 3.5 million partners (drivers and couriers) using the app to earn a living, including over one million in Africa alone.
