In a market long dominated by “second-life” internal combustion vehicles and high-commission foreign platforms, Ahmad Damcida, the founder of Folti Technologies, is executing a high-stakes pivot toward sustainability.
With the launch of eDryv, Nigeria’s first green-powered electric vehicle ride-hailing service, Damcida is banking on the idea that “Transportation as a Service” (TaaS) can address the triple threat of urban pollution, rising fuel costs, and passenger safety.
Damcida, a Harvard Business School alumnus and certified energy risk professional with two decades of experience, is not just launching an app. He is building a vertically integrated energy ecosystem.
While competitors like Uber and Bolt primarily act as technology intermediaries, eDryv operates as a full-service provider. Damcida notes that the company owns its fleet, employs its drivers as formal staff, and manages its own charging infrastructure.
Unlike the ageing vehicles common in the local market, eDryv utilises new EVs with 24-month spare parts agreements directly from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).
Addressing labour concerns, eDryv operates a two-shift system per vehicle to ensure no driver exceeds 12 hours, adhering to ILO standards and improving road safety. Ninety-five per cent of the power used for charging is generated from solar and grid sources, creating a nearly closed-loop, green system.
“Ownership of electric vehicles can be daunting due to high upfront costs,” Damcida explained. “By retailing their utilisation through a service model, we make the technology accessible and affordable for the average commuter.”
One of eDryv’s most innovative features is its approach to carbon credits. The platform uses a formula based on UNFCCC standards to track carbon abatement. Since launch, the service has crossed 1,000 users and saved an estimated 300,000 grams of carbon per kilometre.
These savings are converted into “Green Coins”—digital credits that passengers can use alongside cash to pay for their rides. Essentially, by choosing the eco-friendly option, passengers are paid to help save the planet.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of eDryv’s journey is its move toward technological independence. Damcida reveals that the company is currently building its own mapping system to bypass the high costs of international API providers.
“Google is charging us almost a thousand dollars a day,” Damcida noted, citing the search giant’s vested interests in competitors like Uber as a barrier for local startups. By leveraging and enhancing OpenStreetMap, Folti Technologies aims to own its “invisible infrastructure”, ensuring data remains local and operational costs stay low.
“Google provides the map service, but they were charging us a thousand dollars a day,” Damcida said. “We realised we had to build our own. It’s not rocket science, but it requires the courage to move away from the big tech houses.”
By utilising OpenStreetMap as a foundation and building proprietary layers on top, eDryv is securing its data and its future, proving that Nigerian engineers can develop the “invisible infrastructure” usually imported from Silicon Valley.
While foreign competitors rely on drivers to bring their own (often dilapidated) cars to a platform, eDryv owns its fleet. By signing long-term franchise agreements with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Damcida ensures every car is new, climate-controlled, and backed by a two-year supply of spare parts.
“Ownership of an EV is daunting,” Damcida stated. “But by retailing that experience to the passenger, we bridge the gap between high upfront costs (CAPEX) and the lower operating costs (OPEX) of green energy.”
Perhaps the most revealing part of the eDryv story is its battle for “technological sovereignty”. Damcida revealed a startling reality: foreign tech giants, often investors in established ride-hailing platforms, have created a hostile environment for local startups.
In a bold move for the Nigerian market, every eDryv vehicle is equipped with internal and external CCTV for 24-hour live monitoring. While some might raise privacy questions, Damcida is firm.
“It is for the passenger’s safety. If you use our product, you must accept that your trip is monitored,” the entrepreneur stated. We insure the passenger, the vehicle, and the driver 100%.”
In a country where drivers are often overworked and under-vetted, eDryv’s human resources strategy is a radical departure. Every driver is a formal staff member, complete with lockers, a lounge, and a mandatory two-shift system to prevent the fatigue-induced accidents common in 12-hour “gig” shifts.
“We don’t want body odour in the car; we don’t want a passenger to arrive at a meeting feeling uncomposed,” Damcida stated with characteristic candour.
The company has even committed to training 2,000 university students annually, turning the platform into a massive vocational school for the renewable energy age.
Damcida’s vision is rooted in a unique personal history. A former student of the Nigerian Military School who served briefly in the army, he credits his trajectory to the scholarships and stipends that funded his education. This “debt of gratitude” drives his foundation, which is developing a tech-based platform to provide educational scholarships to the next generation.
Damcida does not see himself as a typical tech founder. He is a researcher-entrepreneur who spent two decades in the “tunnel of darkness” that is Nigerian infrastructure development. Now, he is emerging with a blueprint that combines high-finance rigour with a military-grade focus on discipline and social equity.
His professional portfolio is equally massive, encompassing technical advisory and due diligence for over 70 major infrastructure projects across Sub-Saharan Africa, often consulting for institutions such as Afreximbank.
As a project finance specialist who has consulted for Afreximbank and researched at Oxford, Damcida is uniquely positioned to navigate the 32 per cent interest rates and bureaucratic bottlenecks of the Nigerian market. He describes the path of a Nigerian entrepreneur as a “tunnel of darkness”, but with eDryv, he seems to have found the light switch.
