Atoms & Bits - Tech News for East Africa

Exclusive Interview

The clock reads 11:03 p.m. Five young women slide into the backseat of a minivan in Dar es Salaam. The first destination appears on the driver’s screen. Then comes the request for a second stop.

“Can we just tell you where to go next? We do not want to add it in the app.”

The driver considers the question for a moment. He understands exactly why they are asking. Adding the stop in the app would increase the fare. Rather than explaining the pricing structure, he simply asks them to add the stop correctly online.

“Whether the price will be high or not, it is your responsibility to add all the stops,” he tells them. “Ensure a driver is compensated fairly, and you get home safely.” This isn’t simply any ride-hailing driver. This is Dimmy Kanyankole, the General Manager for Bolt operations across Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya.

A few days later at Bolt’s Dar office, we sit down with Kanyankole to discuss how his company has captured the largest share of Tanzania’s ride-hailing market since launching in 2017 as Taxify.

What prepared you for leading Bolt’s operations in most of East Africa?

Before joining Bolt in February 2024, I was group head of retail at Cellulant, a Pan-African payments company where I worked for over half a decade. My previous roles were data-focused and operational. The digital marketplace model is similar whether you’re connecting merchants with customers or drivers with riders—you are balancing supply and demand in both cases.

How does Bolt maintain its market leadership in Tanzania?

Each morning, I review the previous day’s performance data across our marketplace. We track over 300 metrics, examining supply, demand, and operations.

For drivers, we monitor new sign-ups, retention rates, active drivers, hours online, and earnings. For customers, we track total riders, trip numbers, and revenue. The business side focuses on profitability and expenditure control.

The most crucial metric is how quickly customers connect with drivers. If you request a ride and the driver is more than four minutes away, we know we need more drivers in that area. We aim to keep this wait time (ETA) between two and three minutes throughout our service areas.

With so many ride-hailing apps in Tanzania, how do you maintain driver loyalty?

Today, Bolt employs over 30,000 drivers across eight Tanzanian cities and towns. Around 50% of our drivers work exclusively on our platform. We achieved these milestones by keeping drivers busy with consistent ride requests while ensuring fair compensation.

When we launch in new towns, we focus first on recruiting drivers who understand our commitment to their steady income and passenger safety.

You sometimes drive for Bolt on weekends. What insights has your experience provided?

When I hear customer complaints, I schedule time to drive and experience both sides of our platform firsthand. The tension is always about pricing. Drivers naturally want to maximize earnings while doing less work, and riders want to pay less, even for longer journeys.

Before joining Bolt, I experienced these events as a passenger. My driver asked if I had a discount, and when I confirmed, his expression changed. “I do not prefer riders with discounts,” he confided. “When I pick up customers with discounts, Bolt won’t give me my full payment.”

After joining and examining our financial records, I discovered that was incorrect. When a customer receives a Sh2,000 discount on a Sh10,000 trip, they pay Sh8,000, and Bolt immediately deposits Sh2,000 to the driver’s account. The company absorbs these promotional costs to stimulate growth.

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How is Bolt expanding beyond individual rides?

Bolt Business has grown over 50% year-on-year since 2021 and achieved 100% growth in 2024. Banking and telecom companies lead adoption, followed by legal firms and courier services.

Organizations can track all employee trips, control who takes rides, receive priority assignments to top-rated drivers, set spending limits, and pay once monthly through a single invoice. Most clients have saved over 50% on transport expenses compared to maintaining company vehicles.

How are customers paying for rides in Tanzania?

About 86% of Bolt’s Tanzania transactions currently occur outside our app. Only about 14% of customers pay by bank cards.

However, within the off-app payment category, 23% use mobile money services. After completing a trip, these customers can, for example, ask the driver, “Can I pay you by M-Pesa?” rather than paying cash.

What technology investments are you prioritizing?

Safety is our largest investment area. Approximately 12% of Bolt’s staff works solely on safety initiatives. We have implemented an SOS button that connects directly to our safety team, trip anomaly detection that monitors unexpected stops, and real-time location sharing with family members.

If your ride stops somewhere unusual for several minutes, someone from our safety team will call to ensure you are safe. Our app also limits drivers to working 10 or 12 consecutive hours daily to prevent fatigue-related incidents.

We are also investing in improving digital maps. Many areas in regions like Kilimanjaro and Arusha aren’t accurately mapped yet, which is essential for our service to function properly.

What’s your vision for transportation in Tanzania?

In Arusha, we’re testing electric bikes. In Dar es Salaam, electric three-wheelers are already available on our platform. We want to be the pioneers of electric vehicles in Tanzania—not as the vehicle provider, but as the first ride-hailing company offering diverse EVs.

We are also developing ride-sharing capabilities and integration with public transport. We want customers going in the same direction to share cars, and when you arrive by train in Dodoma or Morogoro, we want a Bolt car waiting to pick you up.

How do you select which towns to expand to?

Our expansion strategy follows careful market analysis. For example, Moshi has approximately 400,000 residents. If just 10% become regular riders taking three trips monthly, that translates to 120,000 rides, sufficient to justify launch. Similar calculations led to our expansion into Morogoro and Mbeya.

Where do you see Tanzania’s ride-hailing industry in five years?

By 2030, over 80% of Tanzania’s towns will have some form of ride-hailing. The industry will grow about 10% yearly. We aim for consistent response times not only in central Dar es Salaam but also 20 kilometers away in Mbagala and in Kahama, a mining town 1,000 kilometers northwest where we recently expanded.

Bolt will continue going where no one else has gone before.