How to play
Ekene is a free browser game about building a bus empire across Nigeria. You start with one donkey — or, if your home is in the north, one camel — and grow a transport company across every state capital and the FCT: 63 cities, 15 vehicles, and a country's worth of goods, animals and passengers. No downloads, no energy bars, no pay-to-win. Just you, the roads, and the loads.
Starting out
Name your company first; the name is yours, painted on everything you own. Then pick one of four home towns: Wudil, Keffi, Umuahia or Owo. Each has a big city as its dream (Kano, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Lagos), and the dream is a long way off in price. Each home comes with a neighbour town already unlocked (Gaya, Nasarawa, Ikot Ekpene or Ikare-Akoko), so there's a road to run from the first minute.
Your first vehicle is a Donkey: one load of cargo, no passengers. Start in the north, at Wudil or Keffi, and it's a Camel instead, which carries two.
On a phone, the game opens as a list of your cities, and the map opens after your 20th delivery. On a computer the map is there from the start.
The loop
Every city you hold has a motor park, and every motor park has a pool of waiting loads — passengers with somewhere to be, cargo with somewhere to go. Open a motor park, tap a load to put it aboard, and tap Dispatch; the fare and the trip's cost are both shown before you commit. The trip takes real time, and the fare lands when the vehicle does. Then you load up for the trip back.
Fill a vehicle with loads all headed for the same town and the trip runs express: 20% off its cost.
The pool restocks steadily, but nobody waits forever — every load shows a countdown, and when it runs out they find another ride. Perishables (tomatoes, fresh fish, vegetables…) pay about a third extra but spoil on a much shorter clock.
Not everything fits on everything: a cow needs a serious vehicle, a Night Bus won't take cargo at all, and the game will always tell you why a load refused to board. The full rules live on the vehicles page.
Fares
Most riders pay the standard fare for the distance. The big names — Chiefs, Cash Madams, Afrobeats Stars and their kind — pay well over the odds. Some riders travel on a concession, because everyone knows you don't charge a Student or a Pregnant Woman full price. Who's who is on the goods & passengers page.
Growing the company
- Unlock cities to extend your network — a small town costs little; Lagos costs ƙ1,000,000. Cities in range of your fleet wear a quiet ring on the map, so you can tell a good unlock from a trap.
- Buy vehicles in the Motor Shop. The ladder runs from the ƙ1,500 Bicycle to the ƙ1,500,000 Premium Shuttle. Four machines are hometown exclusives: unlock Port Harcourt, Abuja, Kano or Lagos and its Okada, Hilux, Gwongworo or Molue goes on sale. See the full ladder.
- Expand your motor park. It holds 3 working vehicles to start, and up to 15. Buy more slots in the Motor Shop, or retire your Donkey or Camel to make room; it can come back to work later.
- Add stops. Tap Add stops, then the towns in order, to send one vehicle on a run with several drops. The fares and costs are shown before you go.
- Name your fleet — every vehicle can be renamed. Fleet numbers, route codes, in-jokes: captains do it all.
Saving & accounts
No account is needed — progress saves in your browser and quietly backs up to the cloud. Signing up (email or Google) attaches your company to an account so it can follow you across devices. Details in the privacy policy.
The world
The map is Nigeria — really Nigeria: six geopolitical zones, real distances, and goods that spawn where the country actually produces them. Cows ride south from the cattle belt, palm oil rides north, Nnewi ships spare parts and Jos ships tin. Start with the cities and the loads.