A little over five years ago, Uber marked its arrival in the streets of Nairobi when it launched in Kenya’s biggest city. It has since expanded to Mombasa and with over 47 million rides under its belt and moving over 84 nationalities, Uber continues to make waves while demonstrating its commitment to providing Kenyans with access to a reliable, affordable and convenient way of getting around.
Uber is constantly exploring and working on building new products to ensure they adapt the business to the local market. “While we are a global company, we know how important it is to adapt to our customers’ needs, and thankfully we have been able to do just that with the likes of UberBoda and UberChapChap. Not only does this improve mobility in the busy streets of Mombasa and Nairobi, it creates further independent earning opportunities for Kenyans, which has always been a core focus for us,” explains Brian Njao, Uber’s Country Manager for Kenya.
Over the past year, Uber has increased access to transportation solutions for everyone, everywhere with the launch of three new options. Uber Lite, a light version of the app for Android users, built to work in low connectivity areas while saving storage space and data, Call to Ride, providing riders without a smartphone the ability to request a ride via a phone call, and uberASSIST, making the travelling needs of senior citizens and those with access needs that much easier.
Above all, Uber has and continues to create new forms of economic opportunities clocking in over 460 million kilometres, with an average time of 24 minutes spent on a ride, it demonstrates Uber’s dedication and commitment to supporting and improving the lives of drivers and riders in Kenya. Uber has also been able to take a huge step forward in showing support for cities, with the recently held Tech for Safety event, which brought hundreds of like-minded people together to discuss how technology can help create public spaces that champion social justice and equality.
What started as a way to tap a button to get a ride has led to thousands of moments of human connection as people around Kenya go to all kinds of places in all kinds of ways with the help of Uber’s technology.
“We aspire to be ‘change-makers’ and this is just the beginning of an important shift in how we move around our cities,” concludes Njao.