Bolt Nigeria, a tech-based transportation service, announced on Tuesday that 22 employees were impacted by the company’s restructuring and subsequent layoffs.
Femi Adeyemo, the company’s manager of communications, gave the Punch telephone confirmation of this on Tuesday.
Adeyemo emphasized that Bolt Nigeria is going through a reorganization process rather than experiencing financial difficulties.
“22 people out of 45 from a department were relieved of their jobs, not nearly half as claimed by some reports.
“The department where it happened has 45 workers, not the whole Bolt. That number is not half of the workforce of Bolt,” he said.
“The affected employees will receive comprehensive severance packages to support their transition to new career opportunities,” Adeyemo added.
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Following this, the e-hailing company released a statement that said, “Bolt has never laid off employees and does not plan to do so, implying a significant team reduction due to the company’s financial difficulties. We have decided to stop working with 22 employees in Nigeria, which was a difficult decision.
“This decision comes as we have been going through the process of restructuring a considerable number of customer support and operational processes in the country. We have offered the people who will be leaving us severance packages that will support their transition to new career opportunities.
“This decision does not affect the quality of our products for riders and drivers. We see great potential in Nigeria, and we will stand by our investment commitments in all our African markets.”
After entering the Nigerian market in 2016, Bolt (formerly known as Taxify) has over 150 million users across more than 45 countries and 500 cities.
It stated that more than 3.5 million partners—drivers and couriers—use the app to make a living today, with more than a million of them based in Africa alone.
