Grace Ashiru
HerRyde, a ride-hailing service exclusive to women, debuted in Abuja the previous Friday. The company’s co-founders, including its current Chief Executive Officer Monsurah Oluwafuyi and Chief Product Officer Kamaldeen Ibrahim), can offer a more secure alternative for female drivers and riders while offering additional chances for women to find employment.
HerRyde issued the following statement in an exclusive interview with TechCabal: “HerRyde is committed to women’s safety and inclusiveness in the ride-hailing/mobility space.”To achieve this goal, we will first create a secure environment where women can work and earn a living as mobility entrepreneurs. This will allow us to give women healthier taxi experiences while driving.
When asked about the motivation behind founding a company that will exclusively cater to women, the founder gave the following response: They stated that the idea for the startup originated from their combined desire to address the unfortunate reality that a disproportionate number of women are subjected to harassment and abuse when using ride-hailing services. Muzau’s aunt met a driver who told her, “If you were my wife, I’d have beaten you for making me wait.”Women often tell stories on social media about being attacked sexually, physically, or robbed while on rides.
TechCabal also polled the female residents of Abuja to find out how they felt about the city’s first taxi service catering exclusively to women. One of the ladies, Boluwatito Sanusi, who works as an assistant publisher in Abuja, revealed that she frequently experiences insecurity when riding in taxis.
Whenever she goes on a vacation, she always sits in the back seat behind the driver and lets someone else know exactly where she is. She thinks that a platform that is exclusive to women, such as HerRyde, would be a fantastic concept.
On a teleconference with TechCabal, Kamaldeen Ibrahim, the Chief Product Officer of HerRyde, stated that the firm decided to debut in Abuja rather than Lagos due to Abuja’s lower barrier to entry in comparison to Lagos, which requires various licenses from drivers and ride-hailing applications.
Ibrahim’s experience as a product manager at Opay building the ORide product was beneficial in making HerRyde.In addition to this skill, Oluwafuyi has a history in marketing, management consulting, and human resources, and Muazu has a background in risk, compliance, and data science. Together, they both bring a wealth of knowledge to the table.
Researchers from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and Hong Kong Polytechnic did a study on women-only ride-hailing platforms in 2019. They found that because fewer drivers, these services tend to be more expensive and of lower quality.
Rather than taking the approach taken by the driver, which is a ride-hailing platform that permits users to negotiate their final fare, the three co-founders of the company have stated that the company will set fares in the same manner as Uber and Bolt do, which is to say, based on the amount of time and distance traveled.
This is in response to the potential difficulties posed by cost and quality issues.TechCabal discovered on Tuesday when testing out their product and comparing it to Uber, that TechCabal projected a journey from Asokoro General Hospital to Gwagalada Central Mosque to cost N5,028, whereas, with Uber, the same trip would cost N6,050.
