Swvl pauses daily intra-city and inter-city rides amid lay offs

Swvl has stated that it will discontinue daily intra-city rides in Kenya from June 3, citing the global economic slowdown.

The company, which has been in business since July 2019, has also discontinued Swvl Travel as of May 30 and will solely run Swvl Business, which caters to corporations, organizations, and private entities.

“In light of the global economic downturn , we are pausing our Swvl Daily intra – city rides in Nairobi next Friday the 3rd of June , 2022. And Swvl Travel on Sunday the 30th of May , 2022,” the firm said in a statement.

Swvl recently revealed plans to cut its employment by one-third in a number of regions as part of its ambition to become profitable by 2023.

“Today, with the current global economic downturn, as much as we did everything we could to put people first, we now know that we are not able to keep everyone unimpacted. We know we have to make tough decisions in order to prioritize profitability over growth to ensure that Swvl thrives once we are on the other side of this.” the CEO, Mostafa Kandil said.

Swvl Kenya has begun rolling out a new innovation that will allow commuters in Kenya to use the platform for long-distance travel as part of their travel service.

Using the Swvl app, commuters could plan and pay for upcountry trips to over 12 destinations, including Naivasha, Nakuru, Molo, Eldoret, Narok, Bomet, Kericho, Kisii, Kisumu, Nyeri, Nanyuki, and Machakos.

The corporation did not specify if the layoffs will affect Kenyan employees or the amount of people affected.