Ride-hailing firm, Bolt recorded a Sh1.27 billion dip in revenues in the Kenyan market in the year ended June 2024 compared to a similar period earlier amid fare increments and a raft of issues that its operators faced.
Bolt increased minimum fares with a range of Sh200 and Sh250 across all its categories in October 2023.
The move was meant to calm its drivers amid high fuel prices that ate into their margins.
However, the increase in fares led to a mass exodus of customers in a market where pricing is key factor.
Disclosures tabled in Parliament show that Bolt made Sh2.45 billion in the period to June 2024, a drop of 25 percent from the Sh3.27 billion made the previous year.
Bolt’s woes came in the period when the Estonian-owned company was caught up in claims of charging an "illegal" booking fee, leading to a stand-off over its licence renewal by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA).
The firm was also beset by safety concerns raised by users of its ride-hailing services.
Its main rival Uber capitalised on the woes to grow its revenues to Sh2.39 billion in the period from Sh2.15 billion in the year to June 2023.
Bolt did not disclose reasons behind the drop, at a time the top three ride-hailing firms saw their combined revenue fall to Sh6.3 billion in the year to June 2024 from Sh6.56 billion a year earlier.
“The revenue collected from digital taxi-hailing and digital delivery services amounted to Sh16,060,555,571,” the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) says in submissions to Parliament. The Sh16.06 billion is from all ride-hailing firms in the country.
Customers using the ride-hailing platforms have in the past raised safety concerns, with Bolt dismissing over 5,000 drivers over the breaches, between May and November 2023.
Bolt was in late 2023 caught up in mounting complaints from its drivers and representatives in Kenya who accused the firm of breaching the cap on commission charges and introducing an “illegal” booking fee.
“Please note that the authority (NTSA) is not able to proceed with renewal of your operator license until when the issues raised by drivers and their representatives are satisfactorily addressed and rectified,” NTSA Director General George Njau had told Bolt in a letter in October 2023.
NTSA had rejected Bolt’s application for license renewal, directing the firm to resolve the complaints and customers first.
Bolt has had to step up services in a bid to ward off competition from rivals. Most of the firms are now offering women-only services that allow female riders to request rides specifically with women.
Bolt added that it would intensify the crackdown on drivers reported for misconduct as it sought to protect its market dominance by averting loss of disgruntled passengers to its two key rivals.
Bolt entered Kenya in 2016, a year after the San-Francisco-headquartered Uber.
The two control over 70 percent of the local market, both in terms of revenues and number of drivers. LittleCab is the third biggest player. LittleCab, which entered the market in 2017, was the other firm that reported a growth in revenues, hitting Sh1.44 billion in the period to June last year, from the Sh1.13 billion made in the year to June 2023.
The KRA says that tax collections from the firms fell four percent to Sh1.15 billion in the year to June 2024 from sh1.2 billion the previous year.
Kenya’s ride-hailing market has grown in the past eight years as firms seek to tap into the growing preference from a middle class and formal workers keen to dump the traditional taxi services.
The expansion has been attributed to the flexible fares, which are largely lower than those from traditional taxis and the convenience offered to passengers in automatically picking drop-off or pick-up points.
