Uber’s exit from Nigeria highlights platform workers’ exposure to AI risks

Uber’s exit from Nigeria highlights platform workers’ exposure to AI risks

Isiaka Agbaje wobbled through the parking space of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, as the afternoon sun baked human skin with fiendish delight. It was the third week of October, and elementary schools had just resumed. A frustrated cab driver, Mr Agbaje, said he has struggled to provide for his family in recent years despite working nearly 14 hours daily.

“The children, my children, are already complaining over their school fees that I haven’t paid, yet I barely make enough even to feed the family,” said Mr Agbaje, 42, with resignation written on his face. He told PREMIUM TIMES that the ride-hailing business no longer pays his bills, amid rising costs and domestic economic pressures.

“It was bad before, but it’s even worse now that Uber has left the country,” he added.

Mr Agbaje’s ordeals aren’t peculiar to him, PREMIUM TIMES gathered from extensive interviews with nearly a dozen cab drivers operating in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, Abuja, and other parts of the country. Responses from the cab drivers highlight the precarity of platform labour in Nigeria and parts of Africa, as adoption of artificial intelligence deepens.

On September 2, Uber confirmed it was discontinuing its operations in Nigeria after 12 years in one of Africa’s biggest markets. It also announced a similar exercise in Uganda, adding that the decision followed a review of its business priorities and investment focus across Africa.

Although Uber didn’t officially link its exit from the Nigerian market to investment in AI efficiency, the developments illustrate the impact of artificial intelligence in the platform economy and how workers become susceptible to risks as technology and business priorities evolve.

Meanwhile, the next day, 3 September, Uber and British AI company Wayve launched supervised autonomous ride-hailing services in London. The service allows passengers to be matched with electric vehicles equipped with Wayve’s AI Driver technology. The vehicles initially operated with licensed safety drivers onboard. The move followed its global restructuring plans—including cutting about 3,300 jobs—to redirect savings and investments into autonomous vehicles and robotaxi partnerships.

The company’s departure from Nigeria and its growing investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous ride-hailing have raised questions about the security of jobs and livelihoods tied to digital platforms, particularly for drivers who depend on ride-hailing companies for income and survival.

Long before it exited the two countries, ex-Uber drivers interviewed by this newspaper described how rising fuel prices, high commissions, and fare disputes affected their earnings.

These challenges left them struggling to cover operating costs, amid severe pressures to meet personal financial obligations. Their experiences mirrored the vulnerability of platform workers whose access to customers and income depends on decisions made by technology companies.

Samuel Adeoti, a cab driver, said one of the biggest challenges was that the fares failed to keep pace with rising fuel prices and other operating expenses. He said Uber’s commission, which he put at 35 per cent, left drivers with little money after paying for fuel, vehicle maintenance and other expenses.

“The same price we worked with when the fuel price was low, [was] still the same when the price was high; at that point, it didn’t favour the drivers,” Mr Adeoti said.

Speaking about the pressure drivers faced, he gave a hypothetical example of a ₦10,000 trip, from which he said Uber deducted ₦3,500 in commission, leaving ₦6,500 with the driver. After spending about ₦5,000 on fuel, he said a driver would have just ₦1,500 left to cover other costs.

“From the remaining ₦1,500, you have car maintenance and still deal with the task force, police, road safety, etc.,” he said. Mr Adeoti said these expenses made it difficult for drivers to maintain their vehicles and support their families.

In 2023, shortly after being sworn in, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu introduced some sweeping reforms in Nigeria’s foreign exchange market and the downstream petroleum sector as part of measures to address fiscal imbalances in the economy.

The government abolished what it termed a wasteful subsidy regime and harmonised the foreign exchange market, with an attendant increase in the cost of living and general price levels.

This significantly impacted cab drivers on Uber and other mobility platforms, eating deep into their earnings.

Lanre Mustapha, an ex-Uber driver, said the company failed to adequately address drivers’ complaints about fares and commissions amid sky-high domestic prices.

“They didn’t give us a chance to see what we were talking about concerning the price we charge and the economic situations [in Nigeria],” he said.

Mr Mustapha said drivers had protested against low fares about six months before Uber left Nigeria, but the company failed to address their concerns.

John Promise, 39, another driver on the platform, told PREMIUM TIMES that the drivers remained on the platform notwithstanding because they had no better options and didn’t want to lose access to their customers.

For workers already struggling to cover operating costs, Uber’s exit also meant losing access to a platform through which they had secured customers.

As the complaints mounted before Uber exited the Nigerian market, some drivers had already moved to competing ride-hailing services in search of better earnings. Still, the transition did not necessarily resolve their problems.

Mr Mustapha, who said he migrated to InDrive, another ride-hailing platform, described uncertainty over account suspensions on the alternative platform as a major challenge.

“I am with InDrive, and they too have started these ‘unfortunate behaviours’. For instance, you can wake up in the morning to work and discover you have been permanently blocked. Why? They won’t state the reasons,” he said. His experience highlights another concern for platform workers: access to work can depend on an account remaining active, while a suspension can disrupt earnings.

Innocent Ogwuche, another ex-Uber driver, said he initially had a positive experience with the service because of its app and safety features. But things changed when fuel prices increased, and the automated fares charged on the platform failed to keep pace with the cost of operating his vehicle.

“Uber is not the one fuelling your car, Uber is not the one doing your maintenance,” he said, lamenting inadequate compensation for trips delayed by traffic. He said he repeatedly faced technical problems while accessing his driver account, which contributed to his decision to leave the platform.

Like in Nigeria, Uber’s exit from key African markets and significant investments in AI raise important questions about the precarity of platform labour.

The development demonstrates how AI tools are increasingly being integrated into tasks previously performed by humans, with ripple effects on the sustainability and survival of workers in the platform economy.

Earlier this year, the World Bank released a report titled World Development Report 2026: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence, which assesses how AI impacts 5.6 billion people in low- and middle-income countries and offers a roadmap for developing economies to harness artificial intelligence despite severe resource gaps. The report showed that AI offers a rare path to accelerate growth at a time when global development progress has dipped to its weakest pace in 75 years. It can help bridge chronic gaps in key areas such as health, agricultural guidance for farmers, and basic administrative support for governments. Across economies, especially in the developing world, the report urged policymakers to follow a structured three-step approach: adopt existing AI tools, tailor the tools to local realities, and develop the technology.

Meanwhile, the report also cautioned that traditional work faces targeted white-collar disruption, entry-level hiring freezes, and widening productivity gaps. While mass automation is less immediate in developing economies—where only 4.5 per cent of jobs are highly exposed compared to 14.2 per cent in wealthy nations—the report warns of several major threats to traditional employment, with tendencies that economic benefits from AI tend to flow toward business and capital owners rather than wage workers.

On 22 October, Uber announced a separate expansion of its AI adoption, making ChatGPT Work available to more than 30,000 employees globally after an initial pilot involving 1,000 workers. Through initiatives like Uber AI Solutions and Digital Tasks, Uber also lets drivers and contractors earn money by labelling data, recording voice prompts, and evaluating AI responses during downtime.

Digital labour sociologist Antonio Casilli describes this move as a “Great Digital Labour Convergence”, adding that merging physical gig work with micro-task data labelling normalises underpaid, algorithmically managed work across more industries while threatening traditional employment protections.

He argued that platforms serve as “testing grounds where industrialists experiment with ideas they plan to roll out across all labour markets, ultimately reshaping labour norms and turning what was once unthinkable into the new standard. “In their wake, even traditionally stable professions have begun to absorb gig-like features—flexible scheduling, task-based pay, algorithmic oversight, and the normalisation of precarious autonomy—blurring the boundaries between formal employment and platform labour,” the scholar argued.

In their book, ‘Notes Towards a Digital Worker’s Enquiry’, Julie Chen, a professor of communications and digital labour, and other scholars examined how previously viewed “unorganizable” digital and precarious workforces are building collective resistance and identifying tactical chokepoints within platform capitalism.

Abubakar Aliyu, a cab driver based in Abuja, agrees that platform workers need to strengthen engagement for collective protection as the ecosystem becomes increasingly precarious.

He said a union, the Amalgamated Union of App-Based Transport Workers of Nigeria (AUTTWON), represents ride-hailing and app-based transport drivers (such as Bolt, InDrive, etc.). They use strikes, fare boycotts, and court actions to push back against algorithmic control, he explained.

He added, however, that because the platforms often treat workers as independent contractors rather than employees, they use legal technicalities and grey areas to avoid collective bargaining agreements and demands for better service conditions.

“We are also getting there; we are engaging, rather slowly, but there are challenges,” he said, with uncertainties written on his face.

Oladeinde Olawoyin reports Business & Economy, Development and Lagos Metro at PREMIUM TIMES. A First Class graduate of Mass Communication from the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, he was nominated in the journalism category of The Future Awards Africa in 2017. Aside maintaining a column titled ‘SATURDAY SATIRE’, he also writes art and culture pieces on weekends. Twitter: @Ola_deinde