{UAH} The true Icon of change; untold story of Moses Musinguzi the 1st ever Safeboda

The true Icon of change; untold story of Moses Musinguzi the 1st ever Safeboda

Commonly known as Moses Number Emu is a true icon of change and perseverance. From a motorcycle mechanic to an Operations Manager, his story is one that could not go untold. Here is Moses' story.

On 28th February 1989, somewhere in Kasese, Moses was born. The joy of having a child is one that mothers have never been able to explain. Sadly, his mom did not live long enough to experience that joy. She was not able to nurse and raise her baby boy; she died soon after the child was born. Musinguzi comes from a family of seventeen children, five boys, and twelve girls. He is the last-born boy and his mother's only child. He has three younger sisters.

He went to Mother Care Primary School and Asamu Model Secondary School for Primary and Ordinary Level respectively. During his senior four vacation in 2007, Moses moved to Kampala to look for work. He could not afford to proceed to Advanced level, he had to work a way out. He joined his elder brother Khalid at a garage in Kibuli. Khalid was a motorbike mechanic and was happy to help Moses learn everything he needed to know about the business. After a few weeks, Musinguzi had learnt enough to repair motorcycles. The garage had a spacious compound that was used as a night parking space for the boda-boda. Every boda was charged five hundred shillings for a night. On average, Musinguzi made five thousand shillings. He would then use half of it and save the other half. The goal was to save enough until he could afford Advanced Level education.

For a period of six months, Moses saved Two thousand and five hundred shillings a day until he finally raised enough money to go back to school. He enrolled in City High School Kololo, but he started during term two since he had spent most of the first months looking for money. He studied History, Economics, Geography, and Entrepreneurship, he scored 18 points in Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education. His performance was astonishing, for a person who spent more than half of school time looking for money. Unfortunately, Moses decided against proceeding to University. He had felt the hardships of juggling school and work, he was not ready to go through that again.

Musinguzi embarked on a new journey, to look for money and create a good life for himself. He moved out of Khalid's place and got himself a room in Mulimira, a slum in Kamwokya. At that time, he paid rent of Ugx 50,000/= He used that space remaining space to set up a shop that sold spare parts for motorcycles. He did repairs and sold spare parts till late 2008. In early 2010, he moved to another place called Passover and continued to expand his business. In 2011, that is when he met the man who would later change his life for good. He got a new customer called Ricky. Ricky was also a boda-boda rider who regularly went to Moses' shop to get his motorcycle repaired. With time, a bond of friendship was born between the two. At that time, Moses was only repaired, but never rode motorcycles as his source of income.

In 2013, Moses made a wise decision to go back to school. He enrolled for a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance at Kyambogo University. He only managed to complete one semester. During the first weeks of University, Moses made a friend, John. Unknown to him, his new friend was a serial gambler. It was not long before John introduced Moses to the vice. Moses eventually went to the Casino. He made Ugx 2.7 million on his first day, having entered with only Ugx 500,000/= into the Casino. After realizing that he could make quick money from gambling, Moses went again and again and again. He became addicted. By 2014, he had gone back to zero. He had lost everything he had worked hard for gambling.

At the bottom line, Moses thought of a new business idea to get him back on his feet. He mobilized Ugx 700,000/= from his friends and bought boda space at Acacia, near Endiiro Coffee and joined the motorcycle riding business. A few weeks on the job, he bumped into Ricky. They caught up on what had been going on in their lives, and then Ricky pitched an idea he had to Moses. Ricky had a dream to start a corporate mobile boda-boda company where both the rider and passenger would have helmets. The company would be called Safeboda. Moses liked the idea and gave his commitment to make it a reality.

Moses was introduced to the other partners and founders. Preparations were soon underway and after the launch, Moses became the first-ever Safeboda rider with rider Number 1. The company had to do a lot of activities to get the new business noticed in society and by the government. Since Moses had a good education foundation and could read and write, he was at an advantage. He became the first trainer at Safeboda. Some of the work he did as a trainer included teaching the new riders how to use the app and how to use smartphones. In 2015, the main challenge of the business was that many riders did not have smartphones. So, the company provided them with the required gadgets on a loan basis. The riders would have to pay Ugx 40,000/= per month or Ugx 10,000/= per week until the loan was covered.

Moses was not only a boda-boda rider, but he was also happy to have some office work he would do part-time. As time passed by, Moses was assigned the post of Driver Technology Manager. This was because the founders had realized he was more
knowledgeable about the gadgets than all the other riders. In order to serve better, he took typing lessons, learned Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. He also learnt how to use Google Slides. He was in the post until late 2017 when he joined Support. He was responsible for reporting back to the leaders on issues such as riders being undercharged, riders who forgot their emails and passwords. At the end of 2018, he was promoted to a new position of Operations Interim Manager where he worked for a short while before joining Well-being, a department of Safeboda which was responsible for giving benefits to the riders. The benefits included insurance and gas stoves. The benefits were also given on a loan basis.

At the end of 2019, Moses joined the Verticals, a section of Safeboda which deals with new products. Such products include; send, airtime and Safeboda food. In the same year, Moses spearheaded an Online Marketing Campaign called Found The One. In the promotion, passengers had to pair with rider Number 1 (Moses' number) in order to win gifts. So, whenever he would be in an area, he would use his social media pages to tell people so that they could pair with him. Whoever found the 1, received gifts such as Safeboda credit worth Ugx 20,000/=, breakfast or lunch vouchers from Café Javas, movie tickets and a trip for two to Queen Elizabeth National Park for the grand winner. By the end of the campaign, Moses had become famous on Twitter.
Today, Moses is the Operations Verticals Lead/Manager. He considers joining the company a lifetime blessing. He got a free trip to Dianni, Mombasa, got a free motorcycle from TVS Uganda and was named an Ambassador for the Brand. He has gained a lot of new skills, grown a solid social network and built a house. He is also able to pay for school fees for his two children, a six-year-old girl, and a four-year-old boy. He is a proud family man who loves his wife. He was able to set up a business for her, all through his savings from working with Safeboda. Looking back, Moses is grateful that he did not give up even when he was at his lowest. From us all at Inspire Magazine, never give up. Remain inspired! IM

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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