GoChap lights up Brazzaville
The bright blue logo of GoChap lit up a Brazzaville hotel hall last Saturday as founder Christ Kimbémbé pressed « activate » on his phone and officially opened the service for Congo. The scene symbolised the country’s accelerating shift toward daily digital convenience.
A one-stop digital shop
GoChap describes itself as a “super-app”, a single doorway to taxis, rental cars, apartments, food and drug delivery, and, soon, bill payments. Already live in Lomé and Ouagadougou, the start-up targets the urban Congolese who juggle multiple apps but crave one trusted dashboard.
Safe, traceable rides
For many residents, finding a cab at rush hour still means waving on the sidewalk. GoChap’s mobility tab aims to change that. Geolocation pairs passengers with verified drivers within seconds, mirroring services already familiar to users in Nairobi or Abidjan.
“Every trip is now traceable by a real-time control panel,” Kimbémbé told reporters, citing recent informal-taxi incidents (Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 12 May 2024). ARPCE officials on site welcomed what they called “a new layer of accountability”.
Food and pharmacy at your door
Beyond individual users, GoChap is courting companies that need to dispatch staff or parcels. A corporate dashboard, currently in beta with two Pointe-Noire logistics firms, lets managers follow vehicles, approve expenses, and download monthly reports, a feature the start-up says will curb “cash leaks” in fleets.
Partnering with thirty restaurants and eight pharmacies at launch, the app pledges meals in under 40 minutes and medication under one hour inside Brazzaville’s first ring. Service fees start at 800 FCFA, competitive with informal couriers riding Chinese motorbikes.
Pharmacist Marie-Chantal Mbemba, who tested the platform during the pilot, praised the sealed-bag system. “We scan the prescription, pack the order, and GoChap takes a photo at pick-up and at delivery. That reassures chronic patients who cannot queue,” she said.
New jobs in the gig economy
In a country where mobile-data penetration reached 46 % in 2023 (ARPCE), digital service growth also means new income streams. GoChap projects 600 driver and rider positions within six months, each receiving in-app training on customer care, road safety and basic bookkeeping.
Junior Ferreira, 26, signed up as a driver on Sunday. The former mechanic hopes the platform will double his monthly earnings. “The app shows me peak zones and helps with budgeting fuel. If I respect the code, clients are more generous with tips,” he smiled.
Backing national digital goals
The government has repeatedly underlined that private innovation is key to the National Digital Plan 2025. A representative from the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and the Digital Economy highlighted that GoChap “aligns with the state’s objective of inclusive, secure, local services available on every handset.”
Observers note that the launch also benefits telecom operators who sell the data bundles needed to run geo-located apps. MTN Congo confirmed negotiations to bundle a GoChap weekly pass with discounted gigabytes, an offer expected to roll out before the holiday season.
Data security as priority
Trust remains the make-or-break factor. GoChap keeps user data on servers inside Congo and runs encrypted backups in Lomé, meeting the 2021 regional data-protection directive. KPMG Congo will audit the process every quarter, the start-up said.
Mobile-money payments from MTN MoMo and Airtel Money are already active, but the team is finalising an agreement with La Congolaise de Banque to allow debit-card top-ups. That would open the door to paying school fees or electricity bills inside the same interface.
Roadmap beyond the capital
Competitive pressure is mounting. Local ride-hailing pioneer Ubizcar sees GoChap as “healthy rivalry”, its founder told Radio Mucodec. Analysts argue that a wider menu of services could tilt users toward the newcomer, provided pricing stays transparent and the app remains light on data consumption.
GoChap’s servers processed 7 000 test transactions during the closed beta, with a 99,2 % success rate, according to internal logs shared with journalists. The company aims for 50 000 active users by year-end, a modest target in a city of two million but significant for a fresh entrant.
While expansion to Dolisie and Owando is pencilled for 2025, the immediate focus is polishing the Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire experience. “We prefer steady quality to flashy roll-outs,” Kimbémbé insisted, echoing the cautious growth mantra repeated by many Congolese entrepreneurs after the global tech-layoff wave.
For everyday citizens the yardstick will be simple: does the app save time and money? By bringing together mobility, goods and soon bill-payment, GoChap bets that convenience will outweigh the effort to download yet another icon. The coming months will deliver the verdict, one tap at a time.
