Delivery of urban transport in developing countries: the case for the motorcycle taxi service (boda-boda) operators of Kampala

Abstract

In East Africa, the development of the bicycle and motorcycle taxi (boda-boda) service can be seen as a spontaneous entrepreneurial response to the increased availability of bicycles and motorcycles. Concomitant with the increasing number of boda-boda operators is the escalating passenger safety concern. A needs assessment survey instrument was administered to randomly selected motorcycle boda-boda operators from a Kampala suburb (Kalerwe and Bwayise locations). Besides safety, the questionnaire addressed issues related to preferred equipment type, ownership, operator training, profitability and operators' attitudes toward organised association. The results of the study support the notion that it is difficult for boda-boda operators to make substantial improvements in their incomes. The results also illustrate the importance of this emerging cottage industry to the local economy. However, more needs to be done to protect the public and to enhance the boda-boda operators' professionalism.

Notes

¹An Act was enacted by Parliament with a date of assent of 19 June 1998, to consolidate and amend the law relating to road traffic, to provide for National Road Safety Council and the Transportation Licensing Board, to revise the penalties prescribed for road traffic offences, and for other purposes connected with road traffic and road safety. The Act was published as Supplement No. 10 to the Uganda Gazette 40(XCI), 26 June 1998.

²To determine the sample (n) drawn from a population of boda-boda operators (N) to interview, the following equation from Scheaffer et al. (1971) was used:

Where p is the estimate of the fraction of the operators responding with the same answer to a question of interest with a plus/minus error of magnitude B, q = 1–p and D = B2/4. Without any prior information, p was set to 0.5. With B = 0.5 and N = 50, n was found equal 33. With a sample size of 37, the result of this survey should be reliable.

³The Government of Uganda has adopted a poverty eradication strategy that, among other things, is aimed at increasing the ability of the poor to raise their incomes either by increasing their productivity or by engaging in new productive activities, so as to improve their quality of life. This strategy is laid out in the government policy document, the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP). To achieve this goal, poverty reduction calls for higher agricultural growth rates and non-farm employment, which must be increased in rural areas since this is where most poor people live. The Plan for Modernization of Agriculture (PMA), which will play a central role in poverty eradication, has thus identified ‘access to rural finance’ as one of its core areas for public action in agriculture. In recognition of the importance of access to rural financial services in the poverty eradication strategy, the Ugandan government is establishing a new regulatory and supervisory structure for microfinance in order to increase poor people's access to financial services. To ensure effective and efficient policy formulation and advocacy for this industry, the Private Sector Development/Capital Building section of the Ministry of Finance has undertaken the development and continuous updating of a Microfinance Institutions database. The results of the first survey were compiled in a March 2000 report (Ministry of Finance, 2000). Table 4 was compiled from the second survey of December 2000.

⁴See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw Accessed 17 September 2006; The Economist, 2006.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Josephat Sentongo-Kibalama

While this article was in review, our co-author Josephat Sentongo-Kibalama passed away. We remember him and his many contributions over the years with admiration, gratitude and a strong sense of loss. Respectively, Professor, Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering and College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Georgia, Driftmier Engineering Center, Athens, Georgia, US; and formerly Senior Lecturer and Head, Department of Agricultural Engineering, and Associate Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. The authors thank Melissa Bishop and Dianne Stroman for their technical support. Funding from the University of Georgia International Fellowship Program is acknowledged.