The bustling metropolis of Lagos, Nigeria’s economic nerve center, pulses with a unique rhythm fueled by its 24-hour activity and unrelenting innovation.
Among the many contributors to its thriving economy, ride-hailing apps have emerged as a transformative force, seamlessly connecting millions of residents to efficient transportation solutions.
With an astounding [projected] revenue generation of over ₦7.6 billion annually, this digital ecosystem underscores Lagos State Government’s strategic embrace of technology as a revenue powerhouse.
Beyond the numbers, this achievement reflects the resilience and resourcefulness of Africa’s largest city, where technology meets opportunity and progress fuels prosperity.
But, this seemed threatened by an emerging challenge in the ecosystem – targeted killing of drivers associated with ride-hailing apps.
Members of the Amalgamated Union of App-Based Transporters of Nigeria (AUATON) are not happy over the ugly incidences hence they are calling for a more regulatory frameworks that will offer protection to their members.
Just recently, the Lagos State command said it busted different gangs of armed robbers, who targeted and killed drivers of ride-hailing apps; Bolt, Uber, Lagride and others in the state.
The police also recovered a large cache of arms and ammunition from the arrested suspects during the period under review.
Members of these gangs were reportedly responsible for the killings of private commercial vehicle operators in different parts of Lagos.
This is just as the Lagos State Commissioner of Police ,Olanrewaju Ishola revealed that the command prosecuted offenders for 2176 offences in the last quarter of 2024 and early 2025
Speaking at Nigeria Info 99.3 Moring CrossFire Programme hosted monitored by Techeconomy on Monday, January 20, 2024, Kolawole Aina, the South-West zonal chairman of AUATON, described the incidences disturbing.
He said the State which generates revenues from the activities of AUATON members should do more to offer protections to them.
Aina said:
“It is unfortunate that this incident keeps happening over and over again. We’ve been advocating for national regulatory framework that will address the issues that lead to this kinds of occurrences. It is really not making any sense that despite all our agitations and concerns always fell on deaf ears of the people in power.
“Yes, Lagos State, they are trying their best but I think the agreement we had at the level of the States in 2020 needs to be reviewed to address all these concerns that are coming up recently.
“You see these two guys [drivers] that died; the truth is they died on the job. When you pick up riders from places like Chevron to Obalende, you would feel safe. That axis appears safe to a driver unlike moving to somewhere like Lakowe. I doubt if any driver wouldn’t have fallen into that trap.
“Also, the app companies should have a proper profiling of everybody that will onboard on this platform – both rider and driver.
“Drivers are being properly profiled, what is stopping them from profiling the riders as well? We don’t want to continue to lose our members who are members of the society with families too.
“In 2020 we had conversation with the [sic: Lagos] State Government which gave birth to the government collecting ₦30 Road Development Fee on each ride. Back then it was ₦20 naira, but recently we have information that the money has been increased to ₦30 naira on each ride.
When asked about the number of rides the members record per day in Lagos State, he said, “We have more than 70,000 drivers in Lagos State. And each rider does a minimum of 10 rides per day. So I guess you can do the mathematics.
When computed 70,000 drivers multiplied by 10 rides per day equals 700,000 rides. When multiplied further by ₦30, it implies Lagos State Government generates about ₦21million daily from the app-hailing drivers.
He went further to say that majority of the members operate Monday to Sunday trips.
“Yes, every day. People work round the clock in Lagos. So that’s 21 million naira in a day for Lagos State government at least”.
Multiplying ₦21 million by 365 days shows that Lagos State generates about ₦7,665,000,000 [seven billion, six hundred and sixty-five thousand naira] on Road Development Fee, charged on ride-hailing apps, annually.
When asked further: You feel that in the agreement you have should be better protected?
He answered, “Yeah, the drivers, we are not even protected in any way. In that agreement, we are not protected in any way.
“The other area that would have given place to our protection has never been implemented by all these companies.
“At some point, we called for meetings or held event where we invite these companies, apart from Bolt, others do not show up.
Comrade Olawale Jossy, national ex-officio member, of AUATON also shared his thoughts on the sad news:
“… I think it is alarming the rate at which members of the amalgamated community have been murdered across Nigeria.
“This is not just a one-off thing, like you are rightly asking me. It is has been happening on a regular occasions.
“The one that happened recently in Lagos – some of these things, to a reasonable extent, would have been prevented if all hands were on the deck; both by the government officials and by our company [ride-hailing app companies] who are serving the responsibility of profiling the riders.
“Like I said, this also happened in Delta State. The news is everywhere. If you go to the Punch right now, you will read about two of our members that were killed in Delta State and an attempted killing of another driver in Benin.
“Without no disrespect to the Nigerian police, we want to commend them, even for bringing all these people who are perpetrating this evil to the public domain.
“But I think the real issue; we have to tackle it from the bottom. It is not always supposed to be a reactive measure. We have to be proactive in tackling the issue of [in]security.
However, some callers to the programme advised drivers on the ride-hailing apps to adopt measures towards protecting themselves, first by being security conscious and avoiding areas prone to be dark spots.
