Bolt, one of the largest ride-hailing platforms in Africa, has reportedly laid off 17 of its 70 employees in Nigeria.
The layoffs, which was reported by Technext, were confirmed by Ire Obatoki, the company’s Regional Manager for West Africa and North Africa who announced it to the company’s Staff.
“Bolt had to terminate work contracts with 17 of its employees in Nigeria due to an initiated strategy to improve our operational processes in the country. This was certainly not an easy decision to make, and we completely understand the frustration of the affected employees,” Ire Obatoki said.
According to credible sources close to Technext, the layoff affected a lot of junior employees despite the company previously promising it won’t lay off staff and would just slash spending instead. In fact, the layoff comes a day after Bolt announced its plans to recruit 326 staff globally and invest $500 million in Africa.
After the announcement, the company held a one-on-one exit chats with the 20 affected staff members. Bolt People Manager for West and North Africa, Afolake Ismaila, conducted the interview and explained to them why they were being let go, claiming the company is on a path to restructuring its operations in Nigeria.
The laid off staff expressed their displeasure over the fact that the meeting was to break the sad news to them as they thought it was an announcement of new team members.
“No one was prepared for being laid off. They told us they would restructure and create new teams and move people around. And they knew well ahead that they were going to do it, and timed it at the end of this month so those laid off would have just one week to clear out their table,” a source told Technext.
According to Ife, each worker will receive severance payment based on what is in their contracts and how long they’ve been working for the company. Reports claim that employees who have been with the company for a year got one-month severance, those that have spent two years got a two-month severance payment, while those that have been with the company for less than a year got half of their monthly salary.
Despite this, some inside sources claim that the company paid no more than one-month severance to all employees. Bolt said it has “offered the affected employees an additional three months of health insurance and three months of access to psychological support and a career coach to help them navigate the transition to new employment opportunities.”
Following the layoff, Bolt is currently looking to hire three senior management staff. The company is looking to hire a Country Manager, a Country Sales Manager, and an Operations Manager. Technext reports that Bolt would not want to employ new staff and would most likely hand those open positions to managers already in the team.
