Uber is leaving two of its biggest African markets.
The company announced on September 2, 2026, that it is discontinuing ride-hailing operations in Nigeria and Uganda, effective immediately. The decision brings a sudden end to more than ten years of Uber’s presence in Nigeria, where the platform helped define what app-based ride-hailing looks like for millions of riders and drivers.
Uber says the exit followed a review of its ‘evolving business priorities and investment focus across the continent.’ The company was careful to draw a line around the decision as it applies strictly to Nigeria and Uganda and does not touch operations anywhere else on the continent.
‘We remain committed to Sub-Saharan Africa, where we continue to see strong growth and long-term opportunity,’ Lorraine Onduru, Uber’s Head of Communications for East and West Africa, said in a statement.
Not About FAAN, Uber Says
The timing raised an obvious question. Nigeria’s e-hailing operators have spent the past few weeks navigating a directive from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) restricting e-hailing pickups at airports, a saga that already pulled in Bolt earlier this year.
Uber says the two events are unrelated. And when asked directly whether the FAAN directive played a role in its decision to leave, the company’s answer was blunt: ‘No.’ Uber maintains the exit was purely a matter of where it wants to direct its investment across Africa, not a reaction to local regulation.
What Happens Now
Operations end 2 September, but Uber says rider support will stay available for 21 days to handle outstanding queries. Uber for Business, the platform’s corporate travel arm, shuts down in Nigeria too.
For drivers and employees, Uber says it is communicating directly about next steps and will extend what it called ‘a token of appreciation’ to active drivers as they transition off the platform. The company hasn’t shared numbers; how many drivers, riders or staff this actually touches in Nigeria and Uganda remains unclear.
Rider data will continue to be handled under existing data protection obligations, with Uber saying it will retain only what’s legally required.
Could This Be About Getting Money Out of Nigeria?
Uber has not cited foreign exchange or fund repatriation as a reason for leaving Nigeria and Uganda. But the pattern is familiar enough in Nigeria that it’s worth asking the question directly.
Nigeria has a well-documented history of trapping foreign companies’ revenue inside the country. Foreign airlines lived this most visibly. At the height of Nigeria’s forex crunch, airlines were owed hundreds of millions of dollars in naira from ticket sales but could not convert and repatriate the funds to their home markets. Emirates suspended flights into Nigeria in September 2022 over exactly this problem, unable to recover funds that kept accumulating faster than the Central Bank would release dollars. Other carriers cut capacity for the same reason. It took roughly two years and a change in the exchange-rate regime for most of that backlog to clear.
A ride-hailing platform sits in a similar position. Uber collects fares in naira, takes its commission, and, like airlines, would need to convert a portion of that revenue into dollars to repatriate it to its home market. If naira liquidity or forex access made that conversion difficult or expensive, then it is possible such a structural problem can sit behind a decision like this.
There’s also the scale of the exit to consider. Nigeria has a population north of 200 million, easily Uber’s largest market by headcount on the continent. Uganda’s population is a fraction of that, under 20 million. Grouping a market that size with Uganda in a single announcement suggests something more structural than ‘Nigeria wasn’t growing fast enough’ because it starts to look like Nigeria stopped being a market Uber could operate profitably and sustainably, at least under current conditions.
None of this is confirmed. Uber has been explicit that the decision reflects ‘evolving business priorities,’ not currency or repatriation issues, and there’s no public evidence tying this exit to trapped funds specifically. But given how often foreign exchange access has forced the hand of multinational operators in Nigeria before, it remains a plausible piece of the picture and one worth watching if more detail emerges.
The Bigger Question: What This Means for Drivers and the Market
An abrupt exit like this doesn’t just remove an app from people’s phones. It pulls a floor out from under an entire income structure that many Nigerian drivers built their lives around.
That’s especially true for drivers under Moove’s lease-to-own scheme. Moove built its entire Nigerian business on the assumption that drivers would keep earning on Uber long enough to pay off vehicles financed over 30 to 48 months, with repayments deducted directly from weekly Uber earnings. Thousands of drivers are mid-repayment on cars they don’t fully own yet. If Uber disappears from their income stream overnight, the question becomes whether they can still make next week’s installment, and what happens to the car if they can’t. Moove has weathered driver disputes over repayment terms before; an Uber exit tests that model in a way nothing else has.
The wider mobility economy takes a hit too because Uber’s departure doesn’t mean ride-hailing disappears in Nigeria or Uganda, as Bolt, inDrive and local players will absorb some of that demand. But it does concentrate the market further, at a moment when drivers already feel squeezed on fares and take-home pay. Fewer platforms competing for driver supply typically means less leverage for drivers, not more.
There’s also a continental signal worth watching. Uber insists this isn’t a retreat from Africa, pointing to continued investment elsewhere on the continent, including the R5 billion it has committed to South Africa. But two markets exiting in the same announcement, on the same day, is a different scale of move than trimming a service tier. Whether this is a one-off recalibration or the start of a narrower Uber footprint in Africa is the story to keep watching.
For now, Nigerian and Ugandan drivers and riders are left to figure out what comes next, and for many Moove drivers, that question is a lot more urgent than which app to download instead.
