Estonia-based rider-hailing company is shutting down her food delivery operations in Nigeria by the end of 2023. Speaking with an insider unofficially, Bertatech Blog was told “BoltFood is closing operations because of profit-related issues”. With a high cost of operation, and growing competition from other food delivery brands like Glovo, Local Eats Africa, and the YC-backed Chowdeck, market share seems to be crashing on the side of BoltFood and a shutdown of Nigeria operations seems to be the smartest business decision to make.
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Officially, the company announced its decision as a move to streamline its resources and maximize its overall efficiency. Prior to this time, customers who have been using the BoltFood app to order food from restaurants online have been experiencing lots of delays in deliveries. Speaking with a Restaurant owner who is a vendor partner for BoltFood, she said “Amongst the popular food delivery apps in Lagos Nigeria, Local Eats Africa, Chowdeck, and Glovo are doing well for me, but I record the least sales on BoltFood. I do not know why, though I tried speaking with my account manager, he didn’t really give me any good reason but I noticed Bolt Riders take the longest time to pick up this may be the reason why customers are not using their app very well – delay deliveries.
In 2023, just after the elections in Nigeria, the removal of fuel subsidies by the Nigerian president Bola Ahmed Tinubu sent the price of fuel skyrocketing by over 226.75%. While this price hike has affected a lot of small businesses, BoltFood delivery which uses mainly fuel-powered bikes for delivery has decided to shut down and salvage whatever is left of the slim profit margin in doing business in Nigeria.
Nigerians will no longer be able to place food orders on the Bolt Food app from December 7th but Local Eats Africa is offering a great option for everyone to find and order local meals from the comfort of their homes online on bit.ly/localeatsng
