Our efforts to revolutionise the transport space, by Okhae

GIG Mobility(GIGM) Limited is among the pacesetters in Nigeria’s transport sector. In this chat, the Executive Director, ENAHORO OKHAE, highlights the company’s efforts to ensure safety and comfort of passengers, as well as how government can help the industry …

The GIGM vision..

Transportation is an intricate part of development in any society. We are very clear about the fact that without mobility, nothing works. The COVID-19-induced lockdown made that clear to everyone, and we have been very keen on building businesses that serve the need of the populace; in this case, Nigeria and Africa.

 At the time the company was founded over two decades ago, a couple of players existed, but the service rendered at the time was quite below par compared to what was obtainable in more developed climes. The mission crafted at that time by our Chairman, Chidi Ajaere, was to revolutionise the transport space through exceptional service and technological advancements. Today, our vision is to become the most technologically-driven mobility platform in Africa.

What are your thoughts on government policies affecting the transportation sector?

So much more can be done to make the transportation space a lot more enabling. Companies in Nigeria’s mobility space are grappling with various issues, including the cost of importation of vehicles and spare parts, inflation and foreign exchange-induced high cost of operations, security issues and multiple taxations.

  The government should strongly consider creating progressive policies to reduce the burden of transport operators. Imagine that we have a thriving automobile production industry, where buses specifically designed to endure the Nigerian terrain are produced en masse; buses will be affordable, and parts and maintenance/repair will be affordable too. Imagine that our roads were motorable and banditry or kidnapping wasn’t an issue, people will enjoy moving freely and taking road trips, which will be the required boost our tourism industry needs at this time.

  In a conference, we hosted around mid-year, very deep insights were shared regarding progressive policy formulations that can advance the performance of the mobility sector. 

With the rise in abductions and social upheavals, the road transportation sub-sector has seen a significant drop in trust; how have you and your team been able to re-establish brand loyalty and client confidence?

At the prime of abduction and banditry, there was a strain on businesses at some point. However, the situation has since improved significantly. At GIGM, we leveraged our route-mapping technology to restructure our routes. Our tracking technology helps us to be nimble, and with the support of our nationwide network coverage, we are able to swiftly get information, share information and make life-saving changes where such situations occur; hence, reducing our exposure up to 90 per cent against other players, who, unfortunately, suffered several cases of abduction. 

  While the situation seems to have improved a bit, there is a lot more government can do to further improve the security situation and restore confidence in the minds of road travellers.

How would you define the amount of professionalism involved in executing GIG Mobility operations?

Occasionally, people walk into our terminals to ask if we are a financial services company because of our level of professionalism. Building GIGM to the company it now comes with a lot of hard work. From reworking the mindset of both employees and the public to understanding that we are not the traditional transport company to building processes and structures to support the vision, GIGM’s success can not be written without huge acknowledgement of our professionalism. The quality of our people and human capacity development are core parts of our strategy. All our key employees are professionally trained to global standards to execute their jobs efficiently.

What other innovative approaches have influenced the functioning of GIGM in particular and the industry in general?

As market leaders, we are constantly innovating and setting the pace in the industry. At the moment, our focus is to become the best mobility platform out of Africa and all our activities are geared toward making this a reality. We recently launched GIGM Ambassadors, an initiative to increase the channels of accessibility of our services to more customers, while creating financial empowerment opportunities for the ambassadors on board our platform. Two years ago, we introduced our Enterprise Partnership programme, which gives individuals the opportunity to leverage GIGM’s platform to become fleet operators within our system. We also recently upgraded our system to allow self-check-in, which reduces waiting time.

  One thing that sets us apart is our quest for excellence. We constantly seek the next big thing and always optimise our processes to ensure customer satisfaction. In all of this, we are glad that other players in the industry are influenced by our innovations, which they adopt. In a few years to come, we would have a more professionally run road transport industry in Nigeria.