Uber Eats to start delivering marijuana, investors demand legalisation in Nigeria

U.S. tech giant, Uber Technologies Inc, will start delivering marijuana, after the Canadian Government lifted the ban on cannabis.

The firm signed an agreement with marijuana marketplace, Leafly.

According to multiple media reports, Uber Eats, a subsidiary of Uber Technologies, will take delivery of orders from retail stores listed on Leafly. The delivery will be limited to Canada.

“First and foremost, we see this as a critical piece to helping discourage impaired driving, and secondly, this is just another initiative that can help combat the illegal cannabis market, which still makes up more than 40 per cent of cannabis sales in Ontario today,” Uber Eats Canada’s General Manager, Lola Kassim, told CBC Toronto.

READ ALSO:Uber sets target date to use drones for meal delivery

“So, we’re providing an option that goes beyond in-store, that goes beyond pickup and it’s also an option for consumers on a platform like Uber Eats, which many Torontonians already know and love and also is built on, you know, trust and safety.”

Investors ask for legalisation of cannabis business in Nigeria

While marijuana is not yet legal in Nigeria, serial investors are making a case for it to be, with Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of venture capital, SAANA Capital, Aloy Chife, asking that the country should take the same path as Canada, United States and other countries that have legalised it.

Chife said legal cannabis will boost foreign exchange in Nigeria. “I believe it’s high time Nigeria legalized Marijuana. It’s now fairly legal in the US and other countries. We can earn a lot of Fx exporting the oils”, he wrote on Twitter on Monday.

His statement comes at a period the country is experiencing scarcity of forex, which has led to high cost of living, due to limited FX for importation or trading.

Since the establishment of SAANA Capital in 2012, the VC has invested in early-stage tech startups in various market segments; Online Services and Marketplaces, Health Care IT, and ePayments.

Explaining further, Chife said, “Many US states license marijuana businesses and President Biden recently committed all sentences for possession. Nigeria can farm and export marijuana oil.”

Responding to a statement on his post regarding abuse and health danger, Chife buttressed with, “Drug use in Nigeria is far less prevalent than in most”, adding, that Cannabis is classified “as a Class B/C drug, suggesting it’s benign effects are far less harmful.”

Meanwhile, another investor, Victor Asemota of SwiftaCorp, has always spoken in favour of Cannabis operation in Nigeria, stating that Cannabis is a cash crop, and Africa needs to tap into the value early.

“Cannabis is a cash crop and unlike cocoa and others, we should learn to bring processing to Africa early so that we can capture most of the value.

“If not, it will become another flawed extraction process. This is where we will need tech most. It is not by websites but processing”, he wrote last year.

Asemota had also opined that, “Someone asked me if there was a market for African cannabis outside Africa? I told her that it would be foolish for us to repeat the mistakes of Cocoa and Coffee. We produce all our CBD oil byproducts in Africa and EXPORT! A friend makes a killing doing that with Shea Butter.

“Stop giving away raw products from Africa and create more jobs from production. The idiot government people looking for foreign investments don’t even first try to get local data on local resources and opportunities for production.”

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