1,000 New Women Drivers Sign Up For Taxi App

A Middle Eastern taxi app has signed up almost 1,000 Saudi women for training in anticipation of the ban on women driving being lifted later this year. The new drivers have been hired by Careem, a UAE-based ride hailing company with millions of users in neighbouring Saudi Arabia. “We are very excited about this June, it is a big milestone for the country. We have already started training female drivers and we hope to get up to 100,000 on board within a year,” co-founder Magnus Olsson said in an interview with Thomson Reuters’ Zawya. Careem – which operates in 13 Muslim countries and is valued at around $1 billion – hopes to recruit 100,000 female staff in Saudi Arabia in total as part of its expansion into the market, Olsson said. n