Built by Onitsha-based technology company Novapath Technologies, TRY is a ride-hailing platform focused specifically on tricycle transport. The platform lets passengers request a ride, see the fare before booking, get matched with a nearby driver, track the trip, and pay with cash or a TRY wallet.
The product is currently starting in Onitsha, with the company planning expansion across Anambra and eventually other Nigerian markets. Its public product pages identify Awka and Nnewi as the next expansion areas.
TRY also has a separate driver application. Drivers can receive nearby ride requests, accept the trips they want, and manage their earnings through the platform. The interesting part is that Novapath is not building only the customer-facing app. It has built its own dispatch, wallet, identity, and transaction infrastructure underneath TRY.
THE PROBLEM IT SOLVES
Traditional keke transport works, but much of the experience depends on negotiation and physical coordination. Passengers may not know how much a trip should cost before getting into the vehicle. They also have limited information about the driver they are entering a vehicle with.
TRY addresses those gaps by putting key information on the customer’s phone before the journey begins.
The passenger enters a pickup location and destination. TRY shows the fare upfront, then matches the request with an available driver. The passenger can see the driver’s name, photograph, and plate number before the ride begins. The platform also tries to solve a less obvious problem: how to build ride-hailing for Nigerian conditions rather than simply copy a global model.
Novapath says TRY is designed to use little data and remain functional on weak network connections. Its infrastructure is built around Nigerian devices and connectivity conditions.
That matters because a ride-hailing product is only useful if the rider can request a trip when they actually need one.
THE PRODUCT EXPERIENCE
TRY’s customer journey is deliberately short.
1. Request
The passenger enters their pickup point and destination. TRY calculates the fare and shows it before the passenger confirms the ride. This removes one of the most familiar parts of roadside keke transport: negotiating the fare after finding a driver.
2. Get matched
TRY looks for an available nearby driver.
The passenger receives information about the driver, including the driver’s name, photograph, and tricycle plate number. This gives the customer information about who is coming before the vehicle arrives.
Behind the scenes, Novapath says its dispatch system contacts nearby drivers and moves to the next available driver when one does not accept a request.
3. Ride and pay
The passenger can track the keke approaching through the app.
After the trip, payment can be made through the TRY wallet or with cash. TRY’s system records the trip, while both the passenger and driver confirm that the journey has ended before the wallet transaction is completed.
The platform also has a separate driver workflow.
Drivers register with their phone number, NIN, photograph, and tricycle plate information. According to the driver app listing, an administrator checks the information before approving a driver to go online.
Once online, drivers receive nearby requests and can accept the trips they want. TRY describes drivers as independent operators who choose their own working hours.
WHAT WORKS
1. It builds around an existing transport habit
TRY is not asking Anambra residents to abandon keke transport. It keeps the familiar vehicle but changes how passengers find, price, track, and pay for the trip. That is a strong product strategy. Instead of trying to create demand for a completely new transport category, TRY digitises one that already exists.
2. The fare comes before the ride
Upfront pricing is one of the product’s clearest advantages.
The passenger sees the fare before confirming the ride. This removes uncertainty and makes the digital experience different from negotiating with a driver at the roadside.
For a transport product, this is more than a visual feature. It directly addresses trust.
3. Driver verification is part of the product
TRY requires identity verification before drivers can operate on the platform.
The company says drivers are verified using NIN and face matching, with the tricycle plate recorded before the driver goes live. Passengers can then see driver information before the trip.
This shows that the product treats trust as part of its core infrastructure rather than something added after the ride-hailing system is built.
4. It is designed for the actual network
One of TRY’s most interesting technical decisions is its focus on weak connectivity.
Novapath says the platform is designed to be light on data and resilient when network quality drops. Its technology stack includes React Native, NestJS, PostgreSQL, and Redis.
For a product operating outside a perfect connectivity environment, that is a more meaningful engineering decision than simply having a polished interface.
WHAT DOESN’T WORK
TRY’s biggest limitation is its early-stage network.
The platform is starting in Onitsha, while Awka and Nnewi are identified as upcoming expansion areas. That means the value of the product currently depends heavily on whether enough drivers and passengers are available in the same area.
Ride-hailing has a classic chicken-and-egg problem.
Passengers will not keep opening an app if there are too few drivers. Drivers will not stay online if there are too few passengers. TRY therefore has to build both sides of the market at the same time.
The company is also operating in a transport environment where offline behaviour is already deeply established. A passenger can simply stand by the road and stop a keke. TRY has to provide enough additional value to make opening an app worthwhile.
There is another limitation around geographic expansion.
The company’s broader vision covers Anambra and eventually Nigeria, but expanding a mobility network is not as simple as opening an app in another city. Each new market brings different routes, driver behaviour, transport patterns, local landmarks, and regulatory realities.
TRY’s early focus on one city may help it solve those problems before expanding, but the product’s wider promise has not yet been proven publicly.
BUSINESS MODEL
TRY operates a commission-based model.
Its public rider site states that the platform takes a 10% commission, while drivers keep the remaining 90 per cent of the fare. It also advertises instant wallet payouts for drivers.
This is an important positioning choice.
The platform does not own the keke vehicles or employ the drivers as traditional staff. Instead, it provides the technology that connects independent drivers with passengers.
That keeps TRY relatively asset-light.
Novapath says its model does not require the company to own vehicles or employ drivers. Instead, it provides dispatch, payments, identity verification, and other infrastructure while independent operators provide the vehicles and driving services.
The company is also building its own wallet and ledger infrastructure. That creates the possibility of expanding the underlying technology beyond TRY, although Novapath currently describes the payments infrastructure as being in development.
The challenge is volume.
At a 10 per cent commission, TRY needs enough completed trips to generate meaningful revenue while keeping drivers satisfied with their earnings. The platform also has to cover technology, support, payment, verification, and operational costs.
The business therefore depends on trip density, not just downloads.
LESSONS FOR BUILDERS
1. Localise the product, not just the marketing
TRY’s strongest idea is its focus on the way people actually move in Anambra.
A founder does not always need to introduce a completely new behavior. Sometimes the opportunity is to take an existing local system and remove its biggest friction points.
2. Trust should be built into the workflow
Driver verification, fare visibility, trip tracking, and transaction confirmation are not separate trust campaigns.
They are product features.
TRY shows how trust can be designed directly into the journey rather than left to customer support after something goes wrong.
3. Infrastructure decisions should reflect the user
Building for weak connectivity may sound like a technical detail, but it can determine whether a mobility product works in real life.
A product designed for Nigeria cannot assume every customer has strong data, a premium smartphone, or uninterrupted connectivity.
TRY’s most interesting lesson is that local technology does not have to mean lower ambition. It can mean taking a familiar Nigerian system, understanding its friction points, and building the infrastructure around how people actually use it.
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