Exclusive Launches!

Here are some recent launches by different companies in Nigeria and beyond,starting with Uber.
You know Uber yeah! Taxi hailing service? Right. You should know also that it has officially launched in Nigeria's Federal capital city, Abuja. Lagos in early January, hit over a billion trips since its inception in 2014, and one wondered when the capital city would get her fair share of the "launch pie."

Now it's finally here. The launch was officially announced on the 23rd of March, making Abuja the eleventh African city that Uber launched after Mombasa Kenya. This also made Abuja the 400th city (I think) in the world, Uber launched. The app offered users in Abuja 6 days of free rides.
Uber also partnered with some Abuja-based firms to attract users. As a way of celebrating their city, the first riders (talking about the partners) were out and about, and had special treats in store for all Abuja Uber riders.

Among these were Charles Okpaleke; CEO and co-founder of the Play Entertainment Network, Adama Ndimi; a passionate humanitarian and one of Northern Nigeria's most influential taste makers, Restaurateur and culture promoter, Sal Gbaja of Salamander Cape. There was also celebrity wedding and lifestyle photographer, George Okoro, and owner of women's fashion house, Dzyn, Ogwa Iweze and they all had some interesting discounts for Uber riders. All that was needed were Uber receipts or scan codes to get discounts.

Sliide launched officially in Nigeria last month and already has over 5000 downloads on the Google Play Store.
It's a new startup that wants to lower the cost of mobile broadband for Nigerians. With high cost of Internet access, and growing social network presence on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, and the rest of them, it is only needful to find new and better ways to help Nigerians pay for Internet access.

Android users can earn NGN100 free airtime just by downloading the Sliide Airtime app from the Google Play Store, and more airtime every month for keeping Slide Airtime on the phone.
Also, users can earn an extra NGN100 for every friend they introduce to Sliide Airtime, and their friends will also earn NGN100 each. The service can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or www.sliideairtime.ng.

South African born Corbyn Munnik, is the CEO and co-founder, Sliide Airtime. Corbyn who had his childhood in Botswana, said the service is non-intrusive. People get free airtime and are also sent contest which will be interesting and useful. The company is focused on Nigeria for now but intends to expand into South Africa, Ghana and Kenya later.

And finally, Ford is going head-on with Uber, with its FordPass. FordPass, a mobile app, is available to both customers and non-customers of Ford. It provides live chat assistance and navigation, remote starting, locking and unlocking, vehicle health information, finding and paying for parking. It is also testing sharing and borrowing of cars via the app. This was during the keynote address by President and CEO of Ford Motor Company, Mark Fields. He suggested that FordPass could do for the car industry what the iTunes did for the music industry.

The app has been introduced in the UK and Germany and will formally launch this month. (Don't know if it has launched already).