Ride-hailing platform, Bolt has said that the international order feature on its app allowed users to order rides from another country other than their home country was wrongly used by South Africans and Nigerians on Thursday for fake rides, leading to the disruption of service in both countries.
The Country Manager of Bolt Nigeria, Yahaya Mohammed, stated this while featuring on an Arise TV programme on Friday.
While debunking the notion that the orders were possible because of errors on the app, Mohammed said the international order feature was introduced 11 years ago to enable seamless orders across the countries it operates.
“It’s a future that has helped a lot of customers around the world. We’re available in 50 countries and up until recently when we had this abuse, it has been a feature that has worked very well for a lot of people,” he said.
Possibility of compensation for drivers
Asked if the company would be compensating drivers on its platform, who wasted their time and fuel due to the deluge of fake ride orders in South Africa and Nigeria, Mohammed said the company is currently investigating the incidence to see what has been lost and what could be done.
“Currently, we are carrying out an in-depth analysis of the rides that were booked, and then the kilometers that the drivers wasted, and then seeing whether there’s room for that.
“At the moment, it’s something that is currently being discussed, and my communication will go out to drivers in the next few days,” he said.
On what Bolt would do to prevent an occurrence of the same situation in the future, Mohammed said going forward Bolt would restrict access whenever it noticed unusual orders between the two countries.
He added that Bolt responded to the issue on Thursday by restricting inter-country ride requests between South Africa and Nigeria. Additionally, he said those responsible for the malicious activity have been identified and held accountable by blocking them from the Bolt app.
“What we did was to block the high volume of orders coming from both Nigeria and South Africa. And then the second and more permanent solution was then to just trace IP addresses from both countries and restrict them from ordering outside these countries,” he added.
Backstory
A perennial social media feud between Nigerians and South Africans degenerated on Thursday as some citizens of both countries resorted to digital attacks with physical impacts, using Bolt platform as their battlefield.
- The dispute began after former Miss South Africa contestant Chidinma Adetshina, who recently landed in Nigeria to compete in the Miss Universe Nigeria pageant, sparked a wave of online backlash.
- South Africans reportedly initiated the petty feud by ordering and then cancelling rides of Nigerian Bolt and Uber drivers, leaving them stranded at pick-up locations. In retaliation, Nigerians mirrored the tactic, launching their own campaign on e-hailing apps to disrupt services in South Africa.
- Viral clips of South Africans engaging in petty actions towards Nigerians fueled further animosity, with Nigerians rallying on social media to leverage their strength in numbers.
