Nigeria’s E-Hailing Drivers Are Taking ‘Offline Trips’ To Dodge Fees Amid Rising Unease

For Onoriode, the math of modern ride-hailing in Lagos no longer adds up. On a 38-kilometre trip from Admiralty Way in Lekki to Isaac John Street in Ikeja—a journey that snakes through some of the worst traffic on the continent—the Bolt app displayed a fare of NGN 11 K (~USD 8.00). After the platform took its 25% commission, the driver was left with NGN 8.5 K (USD 6.20).

Then came the fuel: five litres at NGN 1.32 K per litre, subtracting another NGN 6.6 K. Profit for more than an hour behind the wheel: a measly NGN 1.9 K (USD 1.39).

"All that wahala for N1,900," he posted on X, amid an ongoing online debate about the offline trip phenomenon.

It is a calculation that thousands of Bolt drivers across Nigeria run every day. And it is the reason an illicit practice called "offline trips"—cash transactions negotiated outside the app—has become both a lifeline for struggling drivers and a source of rising tension between drivers, passengers, and the platform itself.

For drivers, offline trips mean escaping Bolt's 20–25% commission and pocketing the full fare. For passengers, they mean an unrecorded ride with no digital trace, no emergency button, and no recourse if something goes wrong. And for Bolt, they represent a direct attack on its business model and a liability the company is spending millions to stamp out.

But in a country where petrol prices have doubled in two years, where inflation is eroding every income bracket, and where the promise of the gig economy has collided with the physical reality of city traffic, the offline trip has become a symptom of a ride-hailing ecosystem that no one seems to be winning.