Restaurants earn Sh534m extra sales from Uber Eats deliveries
Uber Eats Kenya General Manager Kui Mbugua (left) speaks in a panel discussion during the launch of Uber’s Economic Impact Report in Kenya on November 26, 2024 at Fairmont Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi.
Restaurants in Kenya earned about Sh534 million in extra revenues from Uber’s food delivery service in 2023, indicating the size of demand from clients opting to eat at home or their workplaces.
The additional revenue represents earnings from online sales facilitated by the Uber Eats app, which has created an extra income stream for the eateries, while also offering convenience to consumers and jobs for delivery drivers.
This marks a significant boost for Kenya’s hospitality sector, which has been recovering from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic that slowed its earnings to a historic low.
This is based on a study done by research firm Public First, which also revealed that generally, Uber services contributed about Sh14.1 billion to the Kenyan economy last year.
Uber Eats Kenya general manager Kui Mbugua said the app not only enables food vendors to sell at traditionally odd hours for such businesses, but also offers them insights that help them better plan their production, further boosting their revenues and minimising losses.
“Access to insights such as customer preferences, peak ordering times and popular items enable merchants to optimise their offering and tailor their business strategy to meet customer needs,” she said.
“This has helped to boost the local economy while supporting enterprise and small businesses by providing them with an efficient and scalable delivery infrastructure.”
The overall tourism industry also realised an extra Sh2.7 billion in value directly resulting from Uber’s facilitation of tourist movements in the country, the report reveals.
Bars and nightclubs are also estimated to have benefitted from an additional value of Sh167 million from Uber’s services last year, largely resulting from nightlife customers relying on the ride-hailing app to move around at odd hours.
At least 77 percent of Kenyans polled by Public First said they’re more confident staying up late at night because of the availability of ride-hailing apps like Uber, while 76 percent said it is the only means of travelling late into the night.
Based on the study, it is not just restaurants that have benefitted from Uber’s products in Kenya. The ride-hailing app is estimated to have saved Kenyans a total of 3.4 million hours last year, while the food delivery app helped Kenyans save 448,000 hours.
