Bolt Food, a food delivery service in Nigeria, has revealed plans to shut down operations starting from the 7th of December 2023.
News About Nigeria gathered that the food delivery service, which was launched in the country in 2023, said it was closing down operations due to strategic reasons.
According to its management, Nigerians will no longer be able to place food orders on the Bolt Food app as of December 7th, noting that its decision to shut down in Nigeria and move is essential to enable it to streamline its resources and maximize its overall efficiency.
The Bolt Food delivery service currently operates in 16 countries and 33 cities across the world, offering food delivery services to these countries and cities.
The delivery service says since it started operations in Nigeria, it has partnered with over 10,000 restaurants, delivered over 1 million meals, and onboarded 23,000 agents and 12,000 merchants.
The Nigerian food delivery market, which is estimated to be about $834.7 million, had food delivery services like Jumia Food food and Gokada in operations, with new competitors like Glovo, Chowdeck, and Buyfood coming in before the launch of Bolt Food.
Meanwhile, its competitor, ChowDeck, a Y Combinator-backed Nigerian food delivery startup, has exceeded ₦1 billion ($1.2 million) in monthly order value. ChowDeck’s CEO, Femi Aluko, claims that ChowDeck’s growth in October was organic.
The food delivery businesses in the country are currently facing severe economic challenges, which have an adverse effect on their operations.
The skyrocketing price of fuel in the country has led logistics startups like Bolt Food to increase their delivery fees by 20-50%.
The rising inflation rates have also led to an increase in operation costs for these logistics companies, in addition to the poor road networks, which makes it difficult and time-consuming for delivery riders to get around, leading to delayed deliveries and customer dissatisfaction
