Bolt Nigeria, a ride-hailing startup, has let go of 20 employees from its Nigerian operations.
This is based on information from corporate insiders who are familiar with the situation.
Ire Obatoki, Bolt’s regional manager for West and North Africa and ROW, reportedly informed the personnel of the layoff during the All Hands Meeting of the Nigeria Operations teams on Monday.
“Many junior employees are being let go. This is after they declared they wouldn’t fire employees but would reduce spending instead” the source said
This revelation occurs just a day after multiple news outlets reported that the ride-hailing giant planned to hire 326 new employees globally, including 3 managerial positions in Nigeria.
Although it seemed like a source of relief, the corporation appears to have quietly halted its plans to fire 20 team members.
About 70 people work for Bolt in its Nigerian affiliate. The subsidiary is losing 20 of them, or close to a third of its employees.
The reports claim that junior and mid-level workers are primarily impacted.
The company was “restructuring” its Nigerian activities, according to Afolake Ismaila, the company’s people manager, in her conversation with those affected.
The business is currently seeking to appoint three top employees to managerial positions in their place.
They consist of an operations manager, a country manager, and a country sales manager. But, according to the sources, existing team managers would likely fill these positions, preventing the creation of any new positions.
Bolt revealed its plans to invest €500 million ($530 million) in Africa over the following two years yesterday.
With only a week’s notice, the most recent round of layoffs took place. The minimum notice period needed for staff separation for employees with less than a year of service is 15 calendar days as an Estonian company operating in compliance with Estonian labour rules.
Workers who have worked for between one and five years are entitled to 30 calendar days of notice, whereas those who have worked for between five and ten years are entitled to 60 calendar days.
Team members who have been on the team for more than ten years are entitled to a 90-day notice period.
The employer is required by law to pay the employee for the right number of days if they fail to inform them of their termination within the time frames specified.
The legal minimum for severance pay in Estonia is one month’s income.
Bolt Nigeria has not yet responded to the situation.
