There are about 4 types of vehicles plying Abuja roads. The super rides of our darling Senators (We are still waiting eagerly to see the cars they budgeted for themselves on the road), the private cars of ordinary Nigerians moving about with their business, public transport vehicles/trucks/whatnot then we have taxis.

Taxis in Abuja are also divided into 2. The popular white and green kabu kabu, drop or just plain taxi (depending on what you want to label them as) and the new age taxi managed by ecommerce giants such as Easy Taxi and the likes. There are a good number of taxi apps servicing Abuja, the taxi apps have been expensive but they still manage to serve a purpose with the teeming youth population eager to show class.

I visited Abuja in June, Debby, my on and off sweetheart invited me for a little vacation, on getting to Abuja, I was all smiles as she came to pick me up from the airport with a neat looking ride. The smile on my face was priceless, in my mind, I was thinking Debby has stepped up not only to have a neat ride, but also afford a driver. Well, my smile was more about finally meeting Debby after a really long time apart.

She screamed as she saw me, the way we were acting at the airport, you would have thought we were getting married the following day. After exchanging pleasantries, we got in the ride and the driver was like where are we heading to next. I almost said home, Debbie calmly gave the driver directions and cuddled right into my arms.

The ride was amazing and smooth, on getting to our destination, she promptly paid the dude, it was then it occurred to me that we were indeed in a taxi. Debbie went on and on about how taxi apps have been filling a huge need since inception. She told me that she felt really secured when ordering a taxi through the app, I was like, you use Uber too? Nope, Easy Taxi, not sure Uber is in Abuja yet though, was her reply.
As a Lagos boy, Easy Taxi is by no means a new name. I follow them on Facebook and Twitter, infact, I use them almost every other week, whenever I am going to places I don’t wanna stress my car with. This makes me a huge fan of the brand.

Now its December, I came to Abuja on a different aim and ran into Debbie again. We were genuinely happy and excited to be with each other once more, we decided to run wild in town. Pulling out my phone, I decided to use Easy Taxi once more, lo and behold, the entire taxi ordering was a huge failure and disappointment. After 30 minutes of trying, Debbie decided we should use another taxi app since a taxi wasn’t forth coming. My interest was pricked, so I did a little bit of investigation.

It seems the ever vibrant Nigerian market has being a tough nut to crack by the not so new management of Easy Taxi. The ship looked like it was sinking.

Since the introduction of the new MD, the company has being on a downward slope. Many Easy Taxi staffs are confused about what future, if any, Easy taxi has. The company has been plagued with falsifying awards, disgruntled employees, and not meeting with customers expectations.

The Senior PR, Events and Partnership at Easy Taxi tendered her resignation letter and left for a company with better structure earlier this month . Same with the Public Relations arm of Easy Taxi also resigned this month. These are the people who made Easy Taxi a force to reckon with in Nigeria, especially Lagos. They were exceptionally great at looking for leads, she sealed lots of partnership deals, and did extensive work with following up with clients.

To add insult to injury, the entire staff of Easy Taxi in Abuja have being told to submit their laptops, effectively sacking about 12 people at once in an Ecommerce business environment. Who does that? The MD had previously employed about 9 of her own people, even out of the people she employed in Abuja, some have already left the company before the Abuja shutdown.

On November 13th, I wrote a piece, Easy Taxi was gradually bowing out to Uber Taxi, this was as a result of my new found appetite of trying different taxi brands. I could remember noticing a change in the company’s mode of operation. Especially with the fact that some of the taxis were not using A/C as initially thought.

Anyway, it’s surely a company to look out for, who knows, a turnaround might be under construction.

https://dantewest./2015/12/31/easy-taxi-shuts-down-in-abuja-nigeria/