In August last year, OBus, the bus-hailing service of OPay, was launched. OBus joined the ever-growing list of digital services that OPay, an Opera owned business is offering Nigerians.
However, in November 2019, OPay temporarily suspended the operations of OBus due to the nefarious activities of the Lagos Branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and area boys.
Contrary to the reports that the bus-hailing service was suspended due to the activities of NURTW, an OPay rep told Techpoint that the bus-hailing service has not been suspended.
According to the rep, “Rather than an outright suspension, they are currently restrategising to double down on the third party business model, which enables bus owners and vendors lease their buses to OBus.”
The rep added: “The current model violates the principle of sustainability. But, in my opinion, the interstate bus transit model seems like the best option after this.”
Since the temporary suspension, we have not heard anything about OBus-whether it is going to make a return or not.
Techawk decided to reach out to the bus-hailing service and we can authoritatively and exclusively tell you that the service will definitely make a return.
According to Director of Operations, Ridwan Olalere, he told Techawk that they are working to reposition OBus for better scale.
“Launched in beta phase, we are changing our business model for OBus to optimize for better scale.
“We plan to roll out the product in the coming months to achieve more scale which in turn means the service will be available to more customers.
“We remain committed to providing essential transportation services to Nigerians across various economic classes”, Olalere said.
Many customers would like to have the bus-hailing service hit the highways again.
However, when OBus eventually makes its much-awaited return, the bus-hailing service of OPay will meet a strong competition in PlentyWaka which is somewhat filling the void left by OBus.
