Building a Ride-Hailing Application for Intra-City Transport in Port Harcourt, Rivers State

Intra-city mobility in Port Harcourt, the commercial hub of Nigeria's South South geopolitical zone, is complicated by an informal transport ecosystem dominated by unregulated commercial motorcycles and minibuses. This study builds a ride-hailing application for Port Harcourt tailored to the operational realities of the South South transport market. The application is developed using React Native with a Node.js backend and MongoDB for real-time ride data storage. The agile Scrum methodology guides development across five two-week sprints, with continuous feedback from 40 riders and 20 drivers recruited from Port Harcourt's GRA and Rumuola axes. Core features include driver geolocation, fare estimation, in-app payments via Flutterwave API, ride history, and a safety check-in module. Performance was benchmarked on matching speed, driver acceptance rate, and user interface responsiveness across Android and iOS devices. Testing results show an average driver-to-passenger matching time of 4.2 minutes and a 91 percent driver acceptance rate during off-peak hours. The study identifies cash-only payment culture and driver smartphone literacy as adoption barriers, addressed through USSD fallback payment and a simplified driver onboarding tutorial. The research provides a scalable ride-hailing blueprint applicable to other South South urban centres including Warri and Calabar. Keywords: ride-hailing, Port Harcourt, React Native, transport technology, South South Nigeria