New Captain on Deck: 90 days later
On the 18th of June 2021, former Country Director of SafeBoda, Babajide Duroshola, announced his exit and made mention of a replacement found internally. (see full story here).
That Replacement was the then Head of Operations, Olaoluwa Arokoyu who had joined the team in February 2021.
With his vast experience managing business operations at Jumia and OPay, he was chosen by the “gods” to steer the ship in light of Babajide’s exit. It’s been 3 months of turning and navigating but we think he has done a great job.
Our Co-founders agree as well because his probation is over and he’s been confirmed as the new Country Director here at SafeBoda Nigeria.
After his announcement as Country Director, it took a while for Ola to settle in. If you ask him what the most challenging thing was, he’d most likely say, it’s “conforming”. Ola is (and we love him for this), a “by-the-books person”. He has a set way of doing things so that they make sense to him.
This is something he has done all his life and made great progress with it as well but to paraphrase what Babajide says, “the skills that make you a good “Head of” will hamper your progress as a Country Director.” Ola had to find another way to get the desired results. This led him to do something he doesn’t always do.
Instead of trying to get everyone to conform to his standards, he decided to meet everyone at theirs and work with them towards building something we could all be proud of.
How has that worked out for him? Well, let’s look at what he has achieved so far.
1. Driver payouts are now made at 11 am on payment days as against 4 pm: You know what this means? Less irate drivers! Drivers can now withdraw their money early and have time to leave it with their wives or mistress(es) while they go around making more money.
2. New core customer pricing with a 20% rise in DAD: Price has always been a tricky thing with Drivers. With the different incentives we’ve tried to use, only money has given us the best results. Finding a sweet spot that caters to Driver and Passenger needs is tricky but we think we are on the right track.
3. Address verification is now an integral part of our onboarding process: The Operations team will tell you that Fraud is something we deal with EVERY day. We’ve had Drivers who just come in to get phones and helmets and then disappear. By verifying addresses, we have seen a 15–18% reduction in weekly losses that would have come from Drivers who never wanted to work on the platform.
4. SB Wallet expansion from 20k to 175k: To aid our transition from just a ride-hailing platform to a payments platform aka Super App, this had to be done. So, fund your wallets, folks!
5. New Office space: To accommodate the ever-growing team, we’ve secured a bigger and more cost-efficient office space to allow for business expansion for the next 5+ years.
6. New monthly Report: A New monthly overview report is shared with the Global team each month capturing the monthly activities in Ibadan. As we expand to even more cities, the story will get juicier.
7. Weekly Trivias: If you see that no one in the office handles meetings between 1 and 1:30 pm on Wednesdays, it’s because they’re trying to win the Weekly Staff Trivia. A fun way to bond and win wallet credit if you have fast fingers (Not pick-pocketing please.)
8. Staff Helmets: To buttress our stand as a safety-driven company, all staff now put on helmets (each customized with their names/numbers).
9. Growing Numbers: We’ve now completed over 2m rides in Nigeria with a new daily all-time high of over 11k rides.
Not bad for a 90-day sprint, yeah? But this is a marathon. Ola is pumped with ideas and a team that always shoots for the moon. We are excited about what the future holds!
