We now serve over 10k businesses in Lagos: Gokada CEO

When the pandemic hit businesses globally, Gokada had to survive through the tragedy of losing its 34-year old founder and CEO Fahim Saleh, in July 2020. Founded in 2018 as a ride-hailing app to solve the city's public transportation challenges, it has evolved to become the leading food delivery, parcel delivery, and last-mile ecommerce fulfilment solution in Lagos, Nigeria. To manage Gokada, Nikhil Goel assumed the charge as chief executive officer in February 2021. Goel has been associated with the company since November 2019 and has served various positions as vice president of rides, chief operating officer and recently as the president. He explains how they grew during the okada ban to a last-mile delivery company and moving ahead to implement Fahim’s vision.

Besides the pandemic, Gokada also had a personal loss of its founder and CEO Fahim Saleh last year. How did the company manage to move on with the business till you were appointed this February?

2020 was an exceptionally tough year, particularly early on with the okada ban, however, the remarkable strength of our team allowed us to quickly pivot to last-mile delivery. The global pandemic required an urgent response to the new restrictions on movement and with the launch of our last-mile delivery services. We were able to provide crucial logistic solutions to SMEs in Lagos that would have otherwise folded during such precarious times. Most devastatingly the death of our founder Fahim rocked the entire Gokada family.

Fahim had the entire company wrapped up in his optimism. His belief that nothing was impossible, which made a lasting impression, has become our DNA and guides everything we do. I stepped in as acting president, working with everyone to ensure our focus remained on Fahim’s vision to become the leading last-mile delivery solutions in Nigeria and beyond.

Additionally, the okada ban also contributed to the loss of your company. Did you find it difficult to venture into the last-mile delivery business from a ride-hailing app?

It isn’t accurate to say we lost our company as Gokada remained fully operational after the okada ban. We adapted and grew. When the okada ban happened our view was to stay in Lagos and double down on the huge demand for moving goods around the city. Our innovative technology team was able to develop quickly the platform for last-mile delivery - enabling businesses to list on our platform and for users to book deliveries. Our brand reputation also gave us an advantage when approaching new customers and our marketing team was excellent in onboarding businesses to the new service. This meant we were able to keep most of our pilots employed, delivering goods instead of passengers. We now serve over 10,000 businesses in Lagos.

There is a lot to offer in the logistics space in Nigeria to improve services and delivery for individuals and businesses.

You played the role of a key decision-maker in Gokada even during the founder’s presence, did it become easier for you to manage ahead? What are your plans to push Gokada’s business?

Fahim spoke very openly about his vision for Gokada to make an impact in the last mile logistics space, not just helping businesses connect with their customers smoothly but also being a key employer for Lagos’s massive population. He always stressed the importance of the pilots and how essential they are to the business, ensuring they were looked after well. Working very closely together definitely helped in knowing exactly the direction he would have wanted to take the business. We had extensively talked about Gokada’s future. As VP of rides operations and COO thereafter, I developed deep insights into what was working well in the business and what needed adapting. My role in leading operations as well as working in tandem with Fahim made the transition to CEO relatively smooth and I am confident that I can continue to take Gokada in the direction Fahim had envisioned.

The immediate priority for us is continuing to elevate the customer experience on the app to ensure that it seamlessly connects pilots and customers. There is a lot to offer in the logistics space in Nigeria to improve services and delivery for individuals and businesses and this is part of our vision.

In 2019, Gokada raised $5.3 million in seed funding. Could you please detail how the funds were utilised and do you have any plans to raise more funds?

Series A funding was key to the growth and success of Gokada in its first phase as a ride-hailing app. With this, we were able to increase our fleet size, onboard more pilots and develop the app, in a very short period we had established a strong brand identity and completed over 1 million rides. In 2020, the funding aided the pivot to last-mile delivery which has seen an increase in revenue by 10X and growth of Gokada’s delivery order volume by 100X.

There was an idea from Fahim on boat hailing service. Is there any chance of its launch soon?

Right now, our focus is on developing the delivery service in Lagos and then expanding to other states in Nigeria. Fahim did indeed envisage rolling out boat service, and it made sense as most of Lagos is surrounded by water. With the okada ban accelerating our move into deliveries, we must focus on that and continue to grow this before looking at any other services.

Could you focus on G-hub, Gokada Business and GShop? When will it be officially launched?

These are all services we are already offering through the Gokada platform. G-Hub offers customers several sites for them to leave packages, which Gokada then collects and delivers to the required destination. We do this in partnership with several well-known business partners that are based in accessible locations throughout Lagos. Gokada Business is the delivery service we offer for businesses - collecting and delivering urgent business documents and packages. GShop is our food delivery service - connecting thousands of restaurants and takeaways with Lagos’ millions of diners.

Are you planning to expand to more regions in Nigeria?

We are focused on Lagos at the moment, however, expansion is part of our roadmap soon as we look to tackle nationwide logistical challenges and unlock the economic power of the country.