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Uganda sees its first female motorbike taxi drivers

Easy rider

Jan 29th 2014, 20:04 by A.F. | KAMPALA

 

IT IS 8am and Naume Awero is experiencing her first jam of the day in Kampala, the Ugandan capital. “It’s really too much,” says the 25-year-old, sitting on her Bajaj Boxer motorbike surrounded by traffic in the downtown area of Wandegeya.

She is the only known female bodaboda taxi rider in the city, home to thousands of male colleagues. “You know riding in Kampala there are too many accidents, accidents everywhere,” says Ms Awero, who’s been on the road a year. “Other women fear motorcycles and cars. But I always tell them to come and join me.”

According to local newspaper a few female drivers exist in rural parts of Uganda. But Tugende, a firm providing loans in the form of motorbikes to recommended drivers in a hire-purchase arrangement, says she is the only one in Kampala.

“We interact with hundreds if not thousands of drivers all over Kampala, and as far as we know, Naume is the only female,” says Michael Wilkerson, co-founder and CEO. “This not only shows how brave she is, but the level of enthusiasm she generates shows how much potential there is for other women to buck stereotypes and join the industry. “

Ms Awero has succeeded in a male-dominated industry and defied the odds in her personal life. Abandoned by her mother at 12 following her father’s death, she was raped and at 13 became pregnant.

When a male boda driver joked she should borrow his bike, the single mother of two took on the challenge. She asked the university where she was working as a security guard for a loan, borrowing the rest of the money from a bank.

With the six million Ugandan shillings (about $2,400) she bought a motorbike, her own motorbike “stage” (where boda drivers wait for passengers) and a driving permit, learning to ride in just two days.

Today she shares her stage with nine men seven days a week, making up to 50,000 shillings ($20) a day. “In my old company I'd wait for a month to make good money but the children would have to go to school,” she says. “I would even go to sleep hungry. But with bodabodas you won’t go to sleep hungry.”

Last October Ms Awero receieved a bike from Tugende, who have 263 active paying customers and another 64 who have already fully completed their lease and have gained ownership of their bikes.

She is now renting out her other vehicle and with the money she makes from this pays off part of her Tugende loan.

 

            Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
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           Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
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