Shatta Wale launches online-taxi service, ‘Shaxi’

Ghanian musical artists, Shatta Wale announced his plans to launch a ride-hailing service, which will run under the name Shaxi, a portmanteau of ‘Shatta’ and ‘taxi’.

The dancehall artiste announced the development on Twitter, saying that it was in line with his vision to provide employment in his country.

He tweeted, “Shatta Movement fans are going to be employed. The youth are going to be employed, the street are going to be employed, yes we all can play a role in reducing the unemployment rate.”

In another post, Shatta Wale urged persons interested in joining the service to prepare to apply for jobs in his new company. Shatta Wale also promised prospective drivers good working conditions where they won’t be cheated, but instead, treated with value. He stated that the new initiative, which he believes is revolutionary, will help every driver earn more money as they deserve to.

“To all my drivers always complaining about being cheated, don’t worry, I have good news for you all. You are about to enjoy your work as drivers. Shaxi has got you covered. It has taken us time to get everything right. And finally, we are ready.“

‘Shaxi’ will compete with other ridesharing services in Ghana like Uber, Bolt and Yango. This investment will, however, add to the musician’s growing portfolio of investments that includes interests in the music business and real estate.

The announcement was made ahead of the release of Shatta Wale’s new album Gift of God. The project was scheduled to drop last year but the singer was forced to delay its release due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The artiste said this album is going to be different from the usual, he intends on creating a couple of collaborations with  Beyonce and Vybz Martel, instead of a single album as usual.

“We were looking at dropping the album this year, but upon second thought, looking at how the coronavirus pandemic is taken a heavy toll on mankind, we have decided to postpone the final release date to 2021. This is an album where I am going to have a couple of collaborations,” Shatta Wale told the BBC in 2020. “People know me to create albums with me alone. I play my beats, I mix and master everything myself. So, I am going to do a few collaborations with Beyoncé and Vybz Kartel.”