The transportation sector in Nigeria, maybe Africa, is surely not at its best. Like other sectors, it is only normal for entrepreneurs to find solutions using tech. This is exactly what Ishiaku Gwamna and his team have done with the creation of MyQ.
With the help of MyQ mobile app, you’d possess more information about your trip. It helps transport companies manage queues and tickets effectively.
TechMoran chats with a co-founder, Ishiaku Gwamna where he shares a lot of insights about MyQ and the problem they’re solving. Enjoy.
You are on course to starting pilot phase for transporters on your platform. Do tell us about it.
The MyQ Platform development is finally done after 2 years of prototyping, market research, and product development. Now we are integrating interested transporters on to the platform. Our pioneer transporters will be boarded free of charge for them to enjoy the real-time trip management services MyQ provides.
With the initial launch of MyQ, one might think you’ve faced transportation problems before now which propelled you to create the service. Is this true?
Yes, this is very true. MyQ idea came up as a result of problems faced by passengers in the long journey commercial mass transporters, in that passengers have no idea about trip availability at the stations and also the uncertainty with booking a seat against a future date.
This is why MyQ was propelled to come up with an end to end real-time service, where passengers can check trip availability from their smartphones.
Since the launch of the startup, tell us how well you’ve grown. Significantly?
Not that significantly, remember this is a market with a limited exposure to ICT, the bulk of our work has been majorly focused on market research to gauge the demand and product development to model the solution according to the market feedback to ensure acceptability.
We have been taking baby-steps to enter the market, finally, we are able to develop the product to a point where we are confident to carry out the pilot now.
How have you been able to bring private and public transport companies on board your platform?
We have been in touch with a lot of State Government owned mass transit companies and a few of the private companies. Like I said earlier, we are now calling for transporters to board for free on our pilot programme to kickstart our operations.
In your own view, what is the biggest challenge the Nigerian transportation sector is facing?
The biggest challenge, from the voice of the transporters and passengers, is simply lack of information. This is very key for effective service delivery.
The passenger must be adequately informed about the trip, the transporter must be adequately informed on whether the passenger has been served effectively. These 2 are the stakeholders in the industry.
How big is the market you are currently serving?
We are not yet in the market. we are about to start the pilot scheme
Tell us about your business model as a company.
We operate a business to business model. When the transporter subscribes to the service, a commission is charged on every ticket checked into a vehicle for a trip.
How is MyQ funded? Bootstrapped, or otherwise?
We have been bootstrapping from day one to this day.
Let us in on the team behind MyQ.
4 founders as follows:
1. Ishiaku Gwamna
2. Ifeanyi Nnabugwu
3. Ibrahim Saidu
4. Abubakar Sambo
In a 5 year period, how big do you envisage MyQ?
Our vision is to bring the whole long journey road transport industry to a single platform accessible to more than 80% of the population who use this service daily.
What other plans do you have that’s help ease the way we do transportation in the continent?
Apart from the core service provided, which is Real-time Trip Management for the stakeholders, we also will provide insurance namely driver passenger and vehicle, adverts on vehicle and courier service tracking as value-added services to our transporters and their passengers
In two words, tell us your personal recipe for success thus far.
Simplicity and Customer-centricity