Uber officially launched its activities this Wednesday, December 4 in Abidjan. The American giant, settles for the first time in a city of French-speaking Africa, to revolutionize and professionalize the activity of transport in Côte d'Ivoire.

Thanks to its smartphone application, this company offers a metered taxi service, connecting passengers and drivers. Thus, it intends, through its technology, to reduce waiting time and guarantee safety, with a fixed pricing, based on the time and distance travelled. Cash and credit card are essentially the two types of payment accepted.

"We are aware of the competitive environment in which we operate. "We even encourage competition. It makes it possible to develop innovation to improve the services offered to the populations", declares Marjorie Saint-Lot, Country Manager for Uber in Côte d'Ivoire.

The top management of Uber in Côte d'Ivoire and sub-Saharan Africa, with Marius Bessy, Representative of the Ministry of Transport, (in the center)

Uber provides passengers with the necessary information about their driver, such as their first name, photo and license plate number. This allows passengers to recognize the vehicle even before it arrives. App users, drivers and passengers, can also communicate with each other directly through the app without sharing their personal data. In the future, Uber plans to extend its services to Abidjan, in particular with the offer of lagoon transport to facilitate the mobility of a population estimated at 4.7 million people.

Today, Uber is in sixteen cities in Sub-Saharan Africa (Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, East London, Nairobi, Mombasa, Abidjan, Lagos, Abuja, Benin City, Kampala, Accra, Kumasi and Dar es Salaam), with 59,000 active drivers on the continent and 2.5 million passengers. Globally, the Uber network is available in more than 600 cities in 65 countries.

The top management of Uber in Côte d'Ivoire and sub-Saharan Africa, with Marius Bessy, Representative of the Ministry of Transport, (in the center)