‘Easy Taxi’ first in Nigeria –app developer

Weekly Trust: How long did it take you to put Easy Taxi together?Bankole Cardoso: About three months. Easy Taxi is a global company that started in Brazil.  From the moment I was in contact with the global team in Brazil to the day I tested the application in Nigeria it took about three months.WT: Why […]

Weekly Trust: How long did it take you to put Easy Taxi together?
Bankole Cardoso: About three months. Easy Taxi is a global company that started in Brazil.  From the moment I was in contact with the global team in Brazil to the day I tested the application in Nigeria it took about three months.
WT: Why did you switch from working in finance to app developing?
Cardoso: I started my career at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in New York, where I was Certified Public Accountant (CPA), the US equivalent of a Chartered Accountant.  I then worked at The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm with investments in many big companies around the world.  I worked closely with senior management and got a lot of exposure to the businesses we invested in.  After gaining useful work experience abroad I was determined to move back home to start my own business.
I was mainly inspired to use business innovation to help solve some of the urban transportation challenges in Nigeria like traffic and to create a trusted and high quality taxi service that can be used across Nigeria.
WT: What’s Easy Taxi about?
Cardoso: Things do not always go as planned in business but you have to be ready to adapt quickly.  Easy Taxi was the first of its kind in Nigeria and perhaps Africa, so acceptance of this new technology has not been so straightforward.  We are still learning the best ways to hook people onto our service.Easy Taxi is a smartphone application so the initial audience was smartphone users.  Smartphone penetration is on the rise in Nigeria and as people become more familiar with their phones they are starting to realise the enormous power of their phones.
Easy Taxi is unique from a tech perspective in that we allow our users to receive information about their driver and also to communicate with him or her ahead of time.  We strive to offer a high quality service and back this up with a call centre that is on hand to support our users.  Once you request, we will call you. We aim to make things as easy as possible for our customers.
The technology is a smartphone application, which is free to download.  It works by connecting users to the closest available drivers in a seamless way.  When a user opens his or her application, the GPS picks up the customers location.  The customer then makes a request from that point and the closest drivers to that point will all receive the request on their own application.  The drivers then have the option to accept the ride and the first to accept it is paired with the customer. At this moment the customer is shown the driver’s information such as his name, phone number, picture, car license, type of car and the most exciting feature of all, the user can track the driver up to the point he arrives for the pickup.Once the passenger boards the taxi, both the passenger and the driver confirm the ride is complete and the office records a ride.  On the backend from our office, we monitor the ride from start to finish.Part of our goal is to reduce traffic so we are using the existing infrastructure of taxis and we do not buy our own fleet.  We partner with existing taxi companies and also with individual drivers from taxi associations.   Every driver on our network is screened by our team, trained by our team and then accepted into the Easy Taxi driver network.
WT: What were the challenges putting it together?
Cardoso: The initial challenges were around data coverage. I noticed that not all areas of Lagos where we wanted to offer our service were covered with data connections.  We overcame this by offering people the option to call us via traditional method.
WT: Have you achieved that goal which you set in the beginning?
Cardoso: I am always setting new goals and always looking for ways to improve the business. The initial goal was to sign up 100 quality drivers onto our network. We achieved this quickly and always raise the bar higher. We are not satisfied and we always need new drivers as our user base continues to grow.
WT: What were your greatest worries?
Cardoso: My greatest worry was the up-off.  When we started countless people told me that it couldn’t work in Nigeria. It planted slight doubts in my mind but I was still too passionate to be dissuaded.I never had any fear that my idea would be stolen.  People often talk about stealing ideas but I don’t buy into that.This is an open market so there will always be competition and I welcome it.  I have great belief in my methods of executing my idea so I have no fear.
WT: How have you improved on the original idea?
Cardoso: We are learning and making improvements and changes to the application on a daily basis. Some users will notice whereas others may not, but we consider every single suggestion we receive from users.
WT: What’s at the back of your mind when you work?
Cardoso: Growth and high quality service. My thoughts are always about creating the best experience for our drivers, keeping customers coming back and making sure employees are happy. With all these ingredients in balance the company grows. 
WT: Why did you leave a New York job with PWC to return home?
Cardoso: I left New York to return home because I wanted to grow my career in Nigeria in the long term. I was happy at my job so it came as a surprise to many people but I felt that I could be contributing even more in Nigeria.
WT: Would the US not have offered you better opportunities than Nigeria?
Cardoso:  The US has many opportunities and I am fortunate to have capitalised on the ones that came my way. However, Nigeria has enormous potential too and I did not want to miss out on it.
WT: Would you say it is an entirely new creation and there is no other related work like it?
Cardoso: It is not an entirely new creation.  In the US, South America and Asia, taxi hailing apps are very popular.  However, Easy Taxi is the first in Nigeria and I believe Africa.
WT: What’s the attraction for Easy Taxi subscribers?
Cardoso: It is simple really. You never know what situation you may be in when you need a taxi and it is hard to get one. We have had a customer whose car broke down on Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos at night. He did not know what to do and who to call so he used Easy Taxi and he had a driver in five minutes.  This customer had downloaded the app but had no need for it until that moment. We have many frequent users but other instances like this too.
WT: How do you go about funding?
Cardoso: We received funding from Rocket Internet, the biggest internet incubator in the world. They have a proven track record of building businesses like Jumia in Nigeria, so they understand the market.
WT: What defines the contents which make up your app?
Cardoso: Safety, convenience and speed. That is why we use GPS to connect users to the closest drivers to them and offer them the ability to track the driver.

WT: When you are not working, what are you doing?
Cardoso: I spend time with family and friends. I am a big football fan and also enjoy playing tennis and squash. I am interested in languages, which led me to study Spanish as well.
WT: What should your audience expect next?
Cardoso: We are releasing a new product tailored for corporations. This will allow company employees to charge their official taxi rides directly to their companies without paying cash so there will be no need for reimbursement. It will save the user the time and the corporation money.