Bolt establishes regional hub in Nairobi

Ride-hailing and food delivery application firm Bolt has opened its Africa Head Office in Nairobi to leverage the city’s strategic position to serve as a regional hub for its operations.

Bolt says the office located on Riverside Drive will act as its regional nerve center whose operations will cover Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Tunisia.

The mobility company says the move forms part of its continued strategy on growth and investment in the region as it seeks to deepen its presence in Africa in a unified approach.

The African head office based in Nairobi will now provide a chance for Bolt to run its operations in a more integrated and cohesive manner across the region.

Bolt Regional Director and Interim VP for Rides, Paddy Partridge, says the significant investment will strengthen Bolt’s presence in Africa due to Kenya’s strategic location and advanced infrastructure.

“This investment is strategic for us as it will enable us to run and coordinate operations seamlessly across Africa in an integrated manner. It also provides us access to the great COMESA regional markets which we are keen to expand to. Africa as a region, shares a lot in common, and Kenya acts as a great gateway in the region. Its strategic location in the region and the available infrastructure has enabled us to grow tremendously in the East African Market and we believe we can leverage this to still achieve more across the entire continent,” said Partridge.

The office will host Bolt’s senior bosses overseeing operations in Africa including; Regional Director and Interim VP for Rides, Regional Manager for Ride-hailing, East Africa, Regional Marketing Manager, Africa, Senior Head of Public Policy and Legal Director for Africa.

Bolt currently has a 500-strong workforce handling its regional operations, growth and excellence, with more than 400,000 drivers on board in more than 70 cities in Africa.

However, the company says it will still maintain its local offices in each of the markets it operates in in Africa to seamlessly coordinate its operations in a more personalized manner.

Bolt has Bolt Food delivery services in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa and boasts of on-boarding more than 4,500 active restaurants with plans to expand across Africa.

Paddy added, “Our commitment to provide unified world-class services and top-notch customer support in the region is further reinforced through this investment. This is just the beginning, and we hope it enables us to develop a cohesive model for sustainable cities engagement that will help improve city services, and urban transportation for the millions of people in the region.”