Ride-hailing company Bolt (formerly Taxify) has announced the appointment of Olaoluwa Akinnusi as the new Country Manager for Bolt Kenya. Akinnusi will be responsible for overseeing the operations and scaling the Bolt business across Kenya.
Bolt General Manager for Africa, Karl Aru, had this to say about Akinnusi’s appointment. “We are very excited to welcome Ola to our team at Bolt. Not only will he bring a tighter focus on customer relationship quality to our sales team, but also be a great role model for our employees, driver partners and riders who come into contact with him,” said Mr. Aru.
Prior to joining Bolt, Akinnusi was one of the founding employees at Jumia. He had for the last three years served as their Global Head of Operations & Logistics, where he oversaw supply chain management, operations strategy development, implementation and growth across the 7 African countries within his purview.
“I am very excited to join the Bolt team. I believe the potential for growth and value creation is tremendous, given the smart and passionate people that I have already met in the company, a strong brand portfolio and an attractive international footprint. Having played a leadership role in similar business situations and industry, I am confident that we can continue to develop and execute plans to satisfy the needs of the Kenyan market. I look forward to becoming part of the Bolt family and partnering with the team to build the business”, said Akinnusi on his appointment.
Akinnusi is a business analysis professional and has also worked as a consultant with a Financial Advisory firm out of Sub-Saharan Africa, with his core focus being Corporate and Structured Finance. He co-facilitated two debt financing projects, with a cumulative financial value of $1.2 million, and supported in the handling of 10 debt restructuring mandates ranging between $500,000 and $25 million. He is a holder of a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics and is pursuing a Master’s degree in Economics. Akinussi has gained seven years of managerial experience prior to joining Bolt Kenya.
Bolt was founded by Markus Villig and it launched in 2013. It has operations in Europe and Africa and its investors include Daimler, Didi Chuxing, Korelya Capital and TransferWise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus. It launched in Kenya in the beginning of 2017 and operates in Nairobi and Mombasa. It has 25 million customers in over 30 countries. It changed its name to Bolt from Taxify in March 2019.