Popular ride-hailing app Bolt came hard on a stream of fraudulent ride requests that emerged early Thursday, leading to the suspension of several user accounts linked to the practice. It began with South African users pranking Nigerian drivers but escalated when Nigerian users retaliated and pranked South African drivers. In this latest crisis, they only help to fuel tensions that were rated high on the Internet about Nigeria and South Africa. The consequences of such fraudulent ride requests have been far-reaching, particularly for Bolt’s driver-partners, who are disproportionately affected.
With the recent fallout between South Africans and Nigerians, particularly because of pageant contestant Chidinma Adetshina who was accused of having stolen the identity of an innocent South African, citizens of both countries have been having at each other on social media, especially on X (formerly Twitter). The current Bolt trend started when a South African tweeted that he books rides from across the region when he is bored and just cancels the ride when the driver arrives.
Prank ride orders and internet trolling kickstarted the trend.
According to the user (@RakakiTrevor), it was a “Request in Nigeria Challenge” where innocent drivers are booked just for a prank. In the evening of August 21, 2024, the user posted screenshots of in-app chats with the driver in which he claimed to be in front of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) campus. It was an eye-opening tweet for other South Africans, who promptly tried it and discovered that “It worked”. Then, more South Africans joined in the prank. According to a South African, this is to inconvenience Nigerians. In the morning of August 22, the trend had still not subsided, with a prominent South African handle tagging the incident with the hashtag #InCaseYouMissedIt.
Of course, a few opposing voices realized that Nigerians would retaliate, a fact that some Nigerians tried to make that night. As Nigerians awoke, it took little time for everyone to realize that Nigerians were at an advantage. With a population of 200 million people, Nigerians on X are more than South Africans. They did not just use this number to retaliate, they had an edge because there were no cancellation fees to be paid in Nigeria. Pay-on-delivery applications and vendors in South Africa were also pranked with fake orders.
Drivers bear the brunt of the regional back-and-forth.
The financial impact on drivers has been severe, with many expressing frustration over the lack of reimbursement for fuel spent on canceled rides. This issue has been particularly pronounced during a period of fuel scarcity and rising living costs in both Nigeria and South Africa. As a result, some drivers have opted to refuse long-distance ride requests until the situation improves, fearing further losses. Drivers have shown anger and disappointment towards the situation. A driver based in Cape Town recounted an incident where he drove a considerable distance to pick up a customer, only to discover the request was fake. This experience, he noted, not only wasted his fuel and time but also contributed to the growing discontent among his peers.
Meanwhile, Bolt’s leadership has acknowledged the severity of the situation. Yahaya Mohammed, the country manager for Bolt in Nigeria, expressed his worry over the excessive abuse of ride requests between counties, and drivers tend to suffer because of this. He further assured that regarding the commitment of the company to provide a safer and more reliable experience, there’s an urgent measure to fix the issue. Mohammed stated that the management is fully aware of the challenges driver-partners in both Nigeria and South Africa are experiencing due to the fake ride requests. He emphasized that their primary focus is on protecting the interests of the community and ensuring the integrity of the platform remains intact.
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So, Bolt has taken decisive action by blocking a significant number of accounts involved in a disturbing trend of fake ride requests. Also, the company has placed a block on requesting rides between any two countries against this very disruptive behavior that has caused much detriment to users mainly in Nigeria and South Africa. This situation shows the main challenges that ride-hailing platforms face in managing user behavior across different regions. According to a Twitter user (@AjeboDanny), it took rivalry between Nigerians and South Africans to reveal a vulnerability in the Bolt app.