Barely three months after Emmanuel Jide bought his Acura MDX, he received a bill at an automobile repair shop shocked him. He was billed N250,000 to fix a fault his SUV developed after he innocently bought adulterated fuel from black market vendors during the recent month-long fuel scarcity in May which almost led to a total shut down of Nigeria. He is not the only one who suffers such fate, but the fear of spending time that would otherwise be spent doing productive things on queuing for fuel made the black market vendors the darlings of several vehicle users.
If only they could get fuel to power the generators in their homes and companies, or enough fuel for their cars to run just by the tap of a button on their mobile phones.
Ovo Emorhokpor, a Wharton MBA trained Nigerian, together with the team at Yuzah.com have come up with a way for customers to get diesel using an application known as Yuzah App. All you need to do visit the Google Play Store and download the app. This will allow you see all the diesel trucks nearby to place and order and the diesel will be delivered. Although it is designed for Android devices, customers can also get diesel by filling a form directly online; it is that simple!
Yuzah has the potential to become the preferred way of sourcing for fuel. Not only are the delivery truck drivers verified diesel suppliers, but this app allows for transparency in terms of cost and delivery. Although the chances of shaky network haven’t been ruled out completely, the wait promises to be worthwhile.
In an interview with Techcabal , Yuzah CEO, Ovo Emorhokpor explained that majority of the delivery trucks are owned by private individuals and businesses. This is one of the many reasons why the team decided to go with retail fuel delivery service in order to make the entire process more efficient for the buyers and the sellers. He also added that the tech company presently has about twenty (20) active drivers to cover the initial launch area – Lekki and its environs. “As we expand, we will be looking to bring more drivers onboard.”
The start-up recently received about N1 million in prize money during the Airtel catapult-a-startup competition.