It is a toast to all entrepreneurs no matter your location. And in support to your persistence, GIGM, West Africa’s leading mobility company, has released an Ambassador app.
Yes, it is a simple to use app designed to power the GIGM Ambassador Scheme. Anchored on the peer-to-peer marketing ideology, this scheme pays you about 10% commission to sell a brand they love and trust at their convenience. Isn’t that great!
The release of this app reinforces the company’s commitment to providing solutions that aid people move freely and do easily.
An additional source of income for any age or gender
The GIGM Ambassador app, a first-of-its-kind solution in the mobility space, is a small business unit that allows users to sell GIGM bus tickets to potential customers and receive a commission.
With the Ambassador app, people now have an additional channel to make money without hassles or interference with their primary source of income.
Chidi Ajaere, CEO Greatman Legend, described the ambassador app as a timely response to the economic climate in Nigeria as users are presented with another stream of income.
“As an entity, we invest in innovation that propels human progress , and I look forward to more human-centered initiatives like this from the leadership and team at GIGM”, he said.
I had a chat with Mr. Enahoro Okhae, the Chief Executive Officer of GIGM, who reiterated that the Company’s strategic approach to solving problems is hinged on leveraging technology.
Truly, GIGM believes in adopting solutions that are scalable and that solve problems from the roots.
Is this GIGM’s way of fighting ‘japa’ spirit?
So, when I heard about the app, I was like, this is the app to fight this ‘japa’ spirit that has been hovering around our country. But it is about that?
Enahoro Okhae, speaks
“The way we build, as a tech company, every time you speak tech, you break the bias of distance. GIGM Ambassador App is not really about stopping anyone from ‘japa’, because with the app people in the diaspora will still be able to make money too. If you sit in the UK and you’re an Ambassador, and you have a friend in Abuja who wants to travel to Lagos and you guys are chatting on WhatsApp; as an Ambassador you can book a ticket for that person and make money, even though you’re sitting in the UK”.
“Are we fighting the spirit of japa? No, what we have built is something that is borderless, that’s the best way to say it; we are building solutions that are borderless and cannot be inhibited by distance.
“But the bigger picture is that we’re building something that is purely going to help people to be more entrepreneurial”.
How does this work?
“Let me talk about the vision first. As a company, we will maintain that vision as most technologically advanced mobility platform in West Africa and beyond. So, if we didn’t build this app, anybody that wants to travel with GIGM will still look for GIGM or anybody that goes online to look for the best road transportation in Nigeria would still find GIGM right?
“But what we have built is not necessarily for business, because you might quickly think that we built this because we want to make more money. We would have made money anyway.
“So I’d give you two scenarios. You know we have captains (drivers) in this system that we’ve created an entrepreneurship scheme for. So, we have captains, we call them owner-captains that after driving for some years, based on some merits. We’ve given opportunity to anyone to bring in a new bus.
“You still have the opportunity to leave a bus in this system and at the end of the month, the company shares margin with you. So, it becomes another stream of income for you who is a business owner somewhere. You go away with 60%, the company keeps 40%. For the captain, that is a bus that you really didn’t buy with your capital.
“Why did we do that? It is because creating and making people entrepreneurs is important to us. But that’s the first scenario.
“The second scenario: We’ve provided a platform for individuals to bring in buses into the system and become co-owners of GIGM. Just like the captains have their app, we have platform called the Enterprise Partner (EP) app. When you wake up in the morning, all you need to do is open your phone and you’d see all your buses; you’d see where they are located, where they are moving from, how much you have made today, you see your driver and can track your bus per time.
“That has helped people to make money. So you can be working in TechEconomy, but you have five buses on the GIGM platform and you’re making money.
“If you look at those two examples, they are purely directed at helping people to become entrepreneurs and then we collaborate with them and everybody smiles to the bank.
“It is in that light that the ambassador app is simply to make every young guy/lady, with an entrepreneurial mindset, make money on their own and based on their own call.
“How does it work? When you download the app, you go through the entire registration process. There are three levels in the app; there’s a basic level, you go through the process, you verify your phone number and then when you’re done you’re approved because we do a little check on you, then you’re able to sell tickets. How do you sell tickets?
“For example if your friend wants to travel to Abuja, you pick a place in Abuja for him, you pick all the trips and dates just like you do for an air ticket. When it’s time for him to pay, there are several means. You can choose for him to do a transfer, click pay-through-transfer and a number is generated, you send him the number and when he puts the number into his bank app to pay, he will see that it as GIGM.
“Immediately he pays the money into the account, he would receive a mail saying your booking has been successful.
“You would also receive a mail saying your booking for that person has been successful and this is your commission. The traveler can take the email to the terminal on the day he is to travel.
“Secondly, the traveller can also use his card for payment rather than transfer if he wishes. Immediately that is done, you earn your own 10%. 80% of all our payments are made online even before you go to the terminal”.
What about situations of duplication of codes after travelers have booked online or through agents and on getting to the terminal they are told the code is invalid?
With these ‘few’ words of ‘Mr. Leverage’ I was convinced about the intent. However, is there a possibility of two persons coming to the bus terminal around 5:30am only to discover they have tickets with same code… Is GIG Mobility prepared for this journey? Well, the CEO cleared by doubt:
“On the app, you can see all the trips that you have booked for people. You can check the status of all your customers as an ambassador.
“You have an email showing that your transaction was successful. If you get to the terminal, your ambassador can check the status of any reference number.
In terms of sustainability, how do you handle situations where you have more customers than available buses?
“This business has been here for more than 20 years, that’s our simplest problem. Even if we don’t have money to buy buses, we can go to the bank. We are prepared for such. We have a WhatsApp page with more than 200 ambassadors, we have over 500 downloads. In other words, people are already making money from it. It’s live already.
“What I see that will happen is, like airline business, lots of entrepreneurs might come out of this. I foresee a situation where those who are doing PoS business and stuffs like that will also be able to sell GIGM tickets for people who want to buy. Because all you need is the app. You can sit down in your shop, somebody comes to collect cash of N500, you give them; someone comes to pay for JAMB or DSTv, you do it or somebody wants to travel with GIGM and you do it.
“Guess what, nobody is giving 10% commission; you can’t book PayTv subscription as an agent and get 10%, it’s only GIGM that does that. Those agents earn N100 or N200 from transactions, the margin is much.
What is your assurance concerning security of the app?
“It is important for you to know that we already have architecture with a lot of security. So the GIGM ambassador app is not built outside that security system. We have never been hacked. If we have never been hacked and this GIGM ambassador app is built on that platform, then you can understand the security.
“We have very tight security because we know we are dealing with money every day, hundreds of people, thousands sometimes are booking through our platform daily. Like I said, 80% of our transactions are online, and in December, 90% are online. There are times when people have booked ahead and when you come into the terminal you wouldn’t see a bus. With all of those financials happening, we have no choice but to tighten our security, so our system is highly secured”.
What about your expansion plans?
“Our expansion plan has never stopped and these ideas are just going to integrate with it. As I speak with you, we are planning to open Ibadan, in the next two or three weeks, Calabar will be opened. We are in Ghana and we have plans for every part of Africa. There are strategic plans already established but West Africa is our most important focus, with Nigeria being the major for now”.
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