From West to Central and Southern Africa, intelligent route optimisation is helping address one of the continent’s most pressing urban challenges: congestion in rapidly growing cities. In Abidjan, commuters collectively saved more than 815,000 hours in 2025 alone — the highest absolute gain among African cities studied. In Kinshasa, riders gained an average of nearly 6% per trip, one of the strongest efficiency improvements globally. In Dakar, users saved close to 170,000 hours, while in Yaoundé and Douala, riders recovered over an hour per year individually on average.

The findings are based on an analysis of millions of Yango Ride trips conducted in 2025. The research compared AI-optimised routes with static shortest-path routes that do not account for real-time traffic conditions. Results show that dynamic routing powered by machine learning and live traffic data delivers measurable time savings at scale — reinforcing the role of AI-driven mobility as a key layer of modern urban infrastructure.

“In many African cities, time lost in traffic directly impacts productivity, family life, and economic opportunity,” said Adeniyi Adebayo, Chief Business Officer of Yango Group. “What these results show is that AI is not abstract — it is practical infrastructure. By embedding intelligence into everyday mobility services, we can help cities operate more efficiently and return valuable time to people.”

Yango’s routing system processes real-time traffic flows, historical congestion patterns, road characteristics, traffic light cycles, and turn complexity to evaluate multiple route options in milliseconds. Its self-learning architecture continuously improves by comparing predicted and actual travel times, adapting to each city’s unique mobility patterns.

Beyond time savings, intelligent routing contributes to broader urban sustainability goals. By minimizing idle time and optimizing traffic distribution, Yango’s AI technology helps improve fuel efficiency, lower emissions, and decrease localized congestion — key challenges across fast-urbanising African markets.

While African cities recorded significant gains, the cumulative global impact reached more than 5 million hours saved across over 20 cities worldwide, including Lima, Guatemala City and others — demonstrating the scalability of AI-powered mobility solutions across diverse urban environments.

Operating in more than 35 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, Yango Group develops technologies that transform complex algorithms into accessible tools — supporting smarter, more efficient and more human-centered cities.

For the full methodology and city-by-city breakdown, visit here. A short video explaining the methodology is also available here.

Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of Yango