Looks like another mass transit provider is finding it hard to operate in Kenya. In a sudden turn of events, SWVL is pausing all their daily and city to city rides in Nairobi. The company has issued a statement in this regard.

In light of the global economic downturn, we are pausing our SWVL Daily intra-city rides in Nairobi on Friday, June 3RD and pausing SWVL Travel on Sunday 30TH May 2022 – SWVL

SWVL Pauses Rides in Nairbi

Sad Swvl Daily is being paused. cc ⁦@SwvlKenya⁩ ⁦@Ma3Route⁩ pic.twitter.com/eOAGEGegue

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SWVL typically has 3 parts to their transport program. SWVL Daly, City-City and Business-Business. After almost three years in the country, they will be pausing the Daily and CIty-City rides.

The company notes that SWVL Busines will still operate to cater to corporations, organizations and private entities.

Unfortunately, that’s not the only issue. SWVL is also cutting off its workforce by a third. According to Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Youssef Salem, while speaking to Bloomberg, the layoff will affect 400 people.

Effective today, May 30, 2022, we are optimizing our operations in some of our markets while reducing our workforce. The reduction follows an extensive evaluation of team redundancy and how this complements our strategy.  a letter sent to Swvl employees by CEO Mostafa Kandil on May 30 reads.

In addition to the layoffs, Swvl has also announced voluntary salary deductions from the top management team, reduction of current office spaces and freezing their current hiring program.

They have been going through a lot of issues in this country alone and we can only hope that they can bounce back.