'Own your own boda' (motorcycle taxi) empowers Ugandans
(Read article summary)A startup helps motorcycle taxi drivers in Kampala, Uganda, buy their bikes, which in turn helps them buy homes, start businesses, and send their kids to school.
To get around Kampala, the capital of Uganda, you might find yourself on the back of a motorcycle.
Motorcycle taxis, or boda bodas, are that East African city's equivalent of rickshaws in India or yellow cabs in New York. But boda boda drivers, however sharply they're dressed, often barely make ends meet: A big chunk of most drivers' incomes goes toward rent payments to the motorcycle owner.
For a growing number of boda boda drivers, however, that loss of income has stopped: Instead of paying 50,000 shillings ($20) a week in rent for the motorcycle, they pay 60,000 shillings ($24) a week for 17 or 18 months to become full-fledged owners of their own bikes.
Own Your Own Boda (OYOB) is a young enterprise that aims to profit by empowering people to earn more income and be less dependent on an owner who can take the bike away at any time. OYOB reinvests its profits into buy more motorcycles and expanding the program to other drivers – and perhaps eventually to other cities.
To date, OYOB has loaned out about 70 motorcycles, most of which are on the road now (25 loans are already completed). Another 20 to 30 people are on the waiting list.
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