African motorists are calling for the introduction of NEXIT – a navigation app that allows users to search for any combination of restaurants, hotels, shopping malls, attractions and petrol stations based on specifications like price and distance.
According to Vanguard Nigeria, the app – which is currently only available in the US – “provides turn-by-turn navigation and the ability to find exactly what the user is looking for, when it is needed, particularly on the go” and is useful on long journeys or road trips.
“I’ve read about this app. I [hope it] will be introduced here. It’s a harrowing experience for [roadtrippers] to just branch off at any restaurant on the way, not knowing their hygiene level or how affordable their food can be,” says Nigerian motorist, Uba Ekenedilichukwu.
“But from the account of those who have used it in America, it is what we need here. I think we actually need it more than the people it is serving at the moment.”
Likewise in Ghana, a fellow motorist, Kweku Achimpong believes the app’s features could be better suited to aiding Africa – “I don’t know the intention of the people who developed this app by limiting it to the United States. Africa is actually where it is needed. There is a market for it here.”
NEXIT could provide African motorists with the ability to plan unique road trips – especially now when international travel has been restricted in most parts of the world (as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic) and local African governments are calling for their people to take an interest in becoming tourists of their own country.
