Lara.ng: The Real Nigerian Map
Meet Lara…
In the words of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in 2019 “…if Lagos has a theme it is the hustle, the striving and trying. The working class does the impossible to scrape a living. The middle class has a side hustle. The banker sells cloths. The telecommunications analyst sells nappies. The school teacher organizes private home lessons. Commerce rules…”
When commerce rules a society, there is bound to be crude movement in the area. Like Adichie so poetically put it, the banker has to go to the bank on week days and then to the market by weekends to sell cloth. The telecomm analyst goes to his office with his nappies. With a side hustle on everyone’s mind, there is most definitely aldways twice the expected level of movement.
Lara.ng was launched in 2014 by Samuel Odeloye, Nnamdi Nwanze and Ladi Ojora after well-structured data on transit routes, bus stops and local transport rates had been collected the previous year. This is not your regular auto map, this is navigation tech designed by a Nigerian for Nigerians with the intention of creating an engaging platform for everyday road users as they navigate the streets of Lagos. Lara.ng is is not an app to let you know what direction to drive in, it is software for the real lagosians; the danfo-diving, bike climbing, BRT riding lagosians.
How Lara.ng Works
Have you ever been lost in an unfamiliar area and had to ask for directions? Everyone who has been in this situation would prefer to avoid talking to strangers who might give unclear directions. It is even worse when you are in lagos. Newcomers in lagos are told by friends not to act like they are new, because this makes them vulnerable to opportunists who might send one into a trap for a robbery, or just confuse the inquirer for the fun of it. This is why lara.ng is so great. It is like an assistant with a God’s eye view of Lagos. The software is easy to use and is precise with the information it provides.
To get directions from the app, open the page www.lara.ng and follow the interactive session to get clear and direct instructions.
Fig. 1: Lara.ng interface
Because we would all feel comfortable asking our friends for directions, Lara.ng conveys that feeling by providing a Whatsapp-like interface where we can chat with a friend (Lara) and get directions to a destination. Lara functions as the friend that one can call on 24/7 when they’re in a bind, to get directions. It’s basically the girlfriend who knows lagos like the back of hand.
This solution offers road users, mostly pedestrians, precise direction layers to get where they are going in lagos from any location at all.
Fig. 2: Lara.ng chat interface
Lara minds her business and points you to the location as asked, and this is just perfect for anyone who doesn’t have the luxury of a private car or a taxi service. As shown in fig. 2, Lara offers transit directions based on transportation modes. This information is accompanied by the price and time the user will need to get to the destination. That way, you know when you’re short on the cash you need to get where you need to go before you leave home.
The software can only be accessed on web, and it works as a single web page. Lara.ng was built with a progressive web app platform which makes it easy for users to access the page with poor network connections. It has an effective data storage system that allows users to see the frequency of their road usage and allows them understand the mobility patterns of their users.
Are Nigerians aware of Lara?
It will be right to say that because Google maps are preloaded in most android devices, a large number of Nigerians thinks it is the best map software available for them. Save its growing popularity in Lagos and Abuja, the Lara.ng is yet to be on the lips of the Nigerians who actually need the software on a daily basis, especially door-to-door salespersons. There is no official reasons as to why Lara.ng is not advertised, but it may most likely be as a result of low financing and sponsorship.
Issues Facing the Tech
The CEO of Lara.ng claims that hiring had been a major challenge for the startup as they had experienced difficulty in getting employees whose salary expectations fits their budget and though they needed people who could quickly hit the ground running upon employment, they could not get them because of their budget.
More so, they had been almost completely self-funded except for the Facebook’s FBStart grant of $25,000 they received in 2018. According to the CEO, the firm had had conversations with several investors but none have made actual commitments, in spite of the fact that organizations would gain highly from adverts on a site that can very well become indispensable for Lagosians. Lara.ng CEO claims one investor even requested insane returns in a very short period. This lack of investment has led to a slower growth rate and a reduced impact rate in Nigeria, and sadly, this is the story of quite a number of effective solutions in Nigeria.
Despite the challenges facing the transportation solution, Lara.ng has made improvements overtime and has received a sustainable increase in the number of their users.