You know what the real story is here. Uber is gearing up to launch in Accra. I stumbled upon an entry on their career list page that says they’re looking for someone to take charge of Operations and Logistics in their new Accra office. Since its inception in 2009, Uber has expanded to over 400 cities spread out over about 60 countries, 5 of which are in Africa – Morocco, Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa. The development looks a part of an aggressive Africa expansion drive that started a few months ago. Their last two launches were in Abuja (which Twitter users in Nigeria reacted humorously to) and Kenya’s second-largest city, Mombasa.
Uber’s International Launcher, a tri-lingual, left-handed Kenyan-Canadian named Leon Mwotia will be at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) Incubator to talk about their upcoming rollout in Ghana. Hopefully, they’ve done more market research and are more prepared to adapt their global model to the business climate in Accra than EasyTaxi was, before they failed.
Speaking of which, there’s no telling how the incumbent, about-to-be-disrupted taxi drivers will react to Uber’s entry. While they have enjoyed relatively safe passage in Nigeria’s two capital cities, we can’t say the same about other countries like India, South Africa, Kenya (where they set actual cars on fire). Only time will tell what will come of their foray into Accra, so fingers crossed?
