The controversy surrounding Glovo Nigeria’s alleged impersonation of Lagos-based food vendor, Corporate Ewa has escalated beyond a single business dispute.
It is drawing sharp criticism from tech founders and industry professionals who now question the delivery giant’s operational ethics, verification standards, and crisis response culture.
In conversations curated by Techparley Africa from its DRIVE100 Accelerator Programme, founders described the situation as a case study in platform negligence, weak merchant verification, and reputational damage that could have been avoided.
While opinions differ on whether public escalation was the best route, a shared concern dominates the discourse is Glovo’s handling of the matter exposes systemic lapses that threaten trust across Nigeria’s digital commerce ecosystem.
Corporate Ewa–Glovo Saga in Brief
The dispute began after Corporate Ewa, a popular Nigerian food brand, accused Glovo of listing her business on its platform without consent, allowing impersonators to sell substandard roadside food using her brand identity.
According to the vendor, customers repeatedly complained about food quality, delivery locations, and safety, issues that ultimately damaged her reputation and business credibility.
Despite multiple attempts to resolve the matter privately through emails, messages, and official complaints, the vendor alleged that Glovo failed to take decisive action. Even after public outcry, she claimed the platform merely altered the business name while continuing to use her images and location details.
The episode has since triggered wider conversations among founders about accountability, consumer protection, and platform responsibility in Nigeria’s growing tech ecosystem.
Verification Failures and Platform Negligence
Several founders argue that Glovo’s troubles stem from weak or nonexistent merchant verification processes. Oliver Samuel, founder of Cura ID, drew parallels with early ride-hailing platforms in Nigeria.
“When Uber and Bolt came in, they had hubs to verify cars and drivers. That mitigated risks. But when those processes stopped because they became expensive, we started seeing complaints and bad encounters,” he said.
Samuel described Glovo as a “middleman” platform that prioritizes scale over scrutiny.
“They don’t really verify the businesses that sign up with them, and of course it’s buried in their terms and conditions. But founders building platforms must find a way to protect their brand or risk falling into a bad PR trap,” Cura ID warned.
For many founders, the Corporate Ewa case highlights how cost-cutting decisions around verification can eventually boomerang into trust deficits and public backlash.
Founders Push Back Against ‘Attention-Seeking’ Narrative
While some commentators suggested the vendor went too far by taking the issue public, other founders strongly rejected that framing, the likes of Kolawole Philip Ogunlana, founder of Elvion AI Innovations, insisted the outcry was justified.
“She’s not passing the wrong narrative. She sent messages, mails, memos, everything, and Glovo shrugged her off. Her page was flooded with horrible comments over food she never made.”
He described the impersonation as extreme and dangerous.
“Riders were buying roadside food and claiming it came from Victoria Island. That’s horrible. Glovo just changed the name to ‘Corporate Ewa by JJs’ while still using her images and location. How does that make sense?”
For Ogunlana, the core issue is not publicity but delayed accountability, as rethorically asked:
“Why did it take being called out before Glovo commented ‘we’re looking into this’? For how many months? What about the damages?”
Crisis Management, PR, and the Cost of Silence
Beyond verification, founders also faulted Glovo’s crisis response strategy. Gbolabo Joseph, founder and CEO of Turbo Mobility, argued that companies must treat reputational risks as seriously as legal ones.
“Before legal protection, you need an online PR team for damage control, influencer engagement to counter negative narratives, and multiple news articles engaging users,” he said.
Joseph further warned that silence or slow reactions allow public opinion to spiral.
“This is a third-world country, yes, but that’s not an excuse. You must turn it up a notch. Delay creates room for defamation, panic, and viral backlash.”
The consensus among founders is that Glovo underestimated the speed and intensity of Nigeria’s digital public square.
Legal Redress Versus Social Media Escalation
Some founders, however, urged caution about resolving disputes primarily on social media. Surveyor Kehinde Okoye of Kenttimo.co advocated structured legal engagement.
“This is why startups need well-coordinated legal teams. Some issues brought to social media can be handled legally,” he said. Yet others argue that weak institutional responsiveness often leaves entrepreneurs with little choice.
One founder noted that Nigeria’s fragile systems both create opportunity and chaos.
“When processes are weak, people exploit them. But no one should rubbish years of effort because of system failure.”
This tension between legal recourse and public accountability reflects a broader challenge facing startups operating in imperfect regulatory environments.
A Wake-Up Call for Platform Businesses
Beyond Glovo, founders see the episode as a warning to all marketplace and intermediary platforms, across edtech, healthtech, agrotech, and e-commerce.
“If you’re building a platform that sits in the middle, you must map out verification and protection strategies,” Oliver Samuel cautioned.
Another founder, Mukhtar Akinteye of BuildPadi emphasized the need for stronger founder communities.
“We should have a sense of camaraderie. PR, legal support, crisis response, we should be able to rely on each other before things escalate.”
For many founders and technology professionals, the Corporate Ewa saga is not just about one food vendor or one delivery company, but about the urgent need for professionalism, transparency, and accountability in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem.
Talking Points
The Glovo–Corporate Ewa controversy is not only a dispute between a food vendor and a delivery platform; it has evolved into a defining moment for conversations around platform responsibility, founder protection, and trust in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem.
Beyond the viral videos and public outrage lies a deeper structural issue that many founders openly acknowledge, middleman platforms often scale faster than their internal verification, risk management, and crisis-response systems.
While some founders argue that Glovo, like Uber, Bolt, Jumia, or Konga, operates within the limits of cost-driven models that push liability to terms and conditions, others insist that this logic collapses when impersonation, food safety, and brand destruction are involved.
The sentiments from the tech community reflect a sharp divide but converge on one truth, that is ignoring verified complaints until social media pressure mounts is a reputational failure. For many founders, Corporate Ewa’s public outcry was not reckless but a last resort after months of unanswered emails, brand misuse, and customer backlash.
The episode underscores how weak verification processes, slow internal escalation, and poor communication can turn operational gaps into full-blown public crises, damaging both vendors and platforms alike.
In an ecosystem already strained by regulatory gaps and scarce resources, founders are now calling for stronger legal preparedness, proactive PR strategies, and collective industry accountability, warning that without these, any startup, platform or merchant, could be the next casualty of systemic neglect.
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