The average fare for bus journeys within Nigerian cities rose to N1,431.25 in May 2026, up 38.63 percent from N1,032.46 a year earlier, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Okada fares rose even faster, increasing 52.45 percent year-on-year to N1,072.51, underscoring the growing cost of last-mile movement for businesses and consumers.
For online merchants, the increases add pressure to an already difficult operating environment. Businesses that depend on riders to move individual orders must either absorb higher delivery costs, pass them on to customers or find ways to reduce the number of trips required to fulfil orders.
The challenge is particularly important for small and medium-sized businesses, where delivery expenses can quickly erode profits on lower-value orders.
Against this backdrop, Nigerian technology company ChamsAccess is betting that coordinating multiple deliveries within the same area can help businesses reduce the cost of getting products to customers.
Its MarketRide platform brings consumers, merchants and riders into a single digital ecosystem through MarketRide User, MarketRide Merchant and MarketRide Go.
The logistics arm, MarketRide Go, uses a multi-order delivery model that allows riders to fulfil several orders within the same area during one trip. The approach is designed to reduce unnecessary mileage and fuel consumption while increasing the number of orders a rider can complete on a trip.
The model shifts the focus from simply adding more riders to improving how existing delivery capacity is used.
For riders, completing multiple orders on a single route could create an opportunity to increase earnings without a proportional increase in fuel consumption or travel distance. For merchants, fewer separate trips could potentially reduce the logistics cost attached to individual orders.
MarketRide Go also provides GPS tracking, OTP-based delivery verification, rider training, branded equipment and prompt payment settlement, according to ChamsAccess.
The company is entering a market where digital connectivity is already broad enough to support large-scale online commerce. Data from the Nigerian Communications Commission showed 154.35 million active internet subscriptions on mobile networks in April 2026.
But a large connected population does not automatically translate into an efficient delivery network.
The economics of multi-order delivery depend on density. MarketRide will need sufficient numbers of merchants, customers and riders operating within the same locations to ensure that several orders can be grouped into efficient routes.
That makes scale one of the biggest tests for the platform as it seeks to expand beyond individual transactions and build a network effect around delivery.
On the merchant side, MarketRide Merchant provides order management, automated rider dispatch, sales monitoring and customer insights.
ChamsAccess says merchants will pay commissions ranging from five percent to 15 percent, depending on the service and category. The company says this compares with platforms where commissions and related charges can exceed 30 percent, although a broader market comparison would be required to establish how its pricing compares across Nigeria’s delivery industry.
The pressure created by transport costs, meanwhile, extends beyond delivery companies.
Higher fares can increase the final price consumers pay for products purchased online, particularly when merchants are unable or unwilling to absorb the additional logistics expense. That creates a potential feedback loop in which higher delivery costs discourage purchases, while lower order volumes make it harder for delivery networks to achieve the density needed to reduce costs.
For Nigerian online businesses, the issue is therefore becoming less about whether delivery is available and more about whether it can remain affordable as transportation costs rise.
Olayemi Odufeso, chief executive officer of ChamsAccess, said MarketRide was built to connect entrepreneurs with consumers while addressing inefficiencies in digital commerce logistics.
‘We built MarketRide to close the gap between ambitious entrepreneurs, and consumers ready to embrace digital commerce. This is not just for Lagos, but for every urban centre where inefficient logistics is holding back economic growth,’ Odufeso stated.
The bet reflects a broader shift in Nigeria’s delivery market: as transportation becomes more expensive, businesses have a greater incentive to make each trip carry more economic value.
For platforms such as MarketRide, success will ultimately depend on whether that coordination can translate into lower costs for merchants and consumers while giving riders enough orders on each route to make the model commercially sustainable.
With bus fares up almost 39 percent and Okada fares rising more than 52 percent in a year, the pressure to achieve more from every delivery trip is becoming harder for Nigerian businesses to ignore.