Motorcycle taxis are increasingly being driven by women in Uganda

Until a few months ago, Immaculate Nakkazi had never even been on a bicycle. Now, she’s a professional motorcycle driver in Uganda’s capital city, Kampala. 

“Before, I was very, very scared,” she said during a stop to recharge her electric motorcycle.  “For me, even my first day on the road, I was saying, ‘Can I make it?’” 

Motorcycles, known as boda-bodas, are one of Uganda’s most popular forms of public transport. Industry experts estimate there are hundreds of thousands of boda-bodas in Kampala. Until recently, all of them were driven by men. That’s starting to change with a new program encouraging women to get involved. 

Nakkazi is a recent trainee. She learned to ride and got her driver’s license just three months ago. 

She says financial difficulties convinced her to consider it as a career. She has six children, including two-year-old twins. The twins’ father was short of money, and Nakkazi was out of work.

“You know this life, you can be with a man, you bring a baby, the man dumps you.  You know, we mothers, we don’t leave our kids. We fight to the fullest to see that our kids grow up,” she said. 

Boda-bodas are everywhere in Kampala, traveling in swarms and weaving in and out of the city’s notorious traffic jams. Bodas are frequently involved in muggings and purse snatchings. They also have a dismal safety record. At least one person is killed every day in a boda accident in Kampala. One of the largest hospitals in the city, Mulago National Referral Hospital, has a ward devoted to victims of boda accidents. 

As a result, many Ugandans dismiss boda-boda drivers as uneducated hooligans, said Vivian Nabisere, a program manager for the nonprofit Women Rising for Africa, which helps women break into the transport sector.

 “There are people who are scared of using bodas … Most of them drive a bit recklessly, so that has caused very many accidents,” she said. 

However, Nabisere said driving a boda can also be very lucrative. 

 “We’ve seen testimonies of men in the boda-boda sector where you see a man has built a house. A man has paid school fees for his children’s university, they have bought properties and properties out of this business,” she said. 

Even so, women have been reluctant to join the industry, partly because of cultural taboos. 

“A woman has to sit when her legs are together, so whoever would sit when their legs are apart, that’s a crime to our culture,” Nabisere said. 

Capital is also an issue. Nabisere said most women don’t have enough money to buy a boda and either don’t qualify for loans or are hesitant to take them out. 

Women Rising for Africa was established in 2022 to help women overcome those problems. It trains women in road safety, self-defense and financial management and helps them get their driver’s licenses. It also offers loans to women to buy motorcycles. So far, the organization has trained about 80 women and aims to have 250 on the road by the end of 2025. 

Magnifique Asimwe enrolled in the program two and a half years ago.

“I’m a rider. A woman,” she proudly declared when asked to introduce herself.

Asimwe said her new job brought her back from financial ruin. She ran a successful candle and soap business, and then lost everything to theft. 

“I was shocked. I can’t talk, I can’t eat food, I can’t move.” 

She said that she now earns more than her husband does and that she’s the one who pays the bills for their four children.

“I’m now happy ’cause I can make money, so that I can buy food for my kids, my family. I can pay my school fees for my children,” she said. “We are now okay. We are no more crying.”  

Nakkazi said she’s also paying the bills at home now and has already saved enough to start renovating her house. 

“I’m proud of myself, that I can ride a bike like a man, which I’ve never hoped that I can do,” she said.  

She added that she hopes to save enough money in the next couple of years to buy a car and drive for a ride-hailing service. In the meantime, she said that her goal is to convince more men that women are just as capable of driving a boda as they are. 

“Some say, ‘No, you are not going to take me.  You are a woman,'” she said. “A man from China. He told me, ‘Stop, stop, I want to ask you something. Aren’t you scared of this road?’ I said, ‘No. I got my confidence.'”