Boda boda sector big for the economy but it needs regulation

Bodaboda operators wait for customers in Kakamega town [Duncan Ocholla, Standard]

It is impossible to ignore the impact the boda boda sector has had on the economy due to the sheer numbers of motorcycles in the country. However, most of them are unregistered.

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics’ (KNBS) Economic Survey of 2021, there was a six per cent increase in the number of newly registered motorcycle units from 327,176 in 2019 to 346,729 in 2020.

But Michael Kimani, the national chairman of the United Bodaboda Welfare Association, says there are at least 1.7 million of them.

Official documents show that the number of motor and autcocycles registered in the country rose from 119,724 in 2016 to 246,705 in 2020.

It was a gradual rise through the years, with more people in the informal sector finding solace in the sector, which is largely unregulated and relatively easy to find a way into.

The National Crime and Research Centre in 2019 found out that well over 85 per cent of boda boda riders did not go beyong secondary school. More than half of this number ended their education at the primary school level.

The unemployment rate, according to the quarterly labour reports, was at 12.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2021. However, this does not take into account the millions of people who have given up on job seeking. It also includes millions in the informal sector where the earnings are barely adequate.

Besides reducing unemployment, the sector has made life easier for many business people, enabling them cart both raw materials and finished products with ease, opening up markets.

An explosion of the youth population where nine million people aged between 18 and 35 years is expected to be added into the labour force between 2015 and 2025 will aggravate the unemployment crisis, according to a 2020 World Bank report. World Bank estimates that Kenya needs to create an average of 900,000 jobs annually.

The National Bodaboda Association in 2020 reported that 22 million trips were made daily — 15 rides per boda boda. The motorcycles, in so doing, consumed Sh157 billion in fuel a year. With a rise in the numbers of riders and the price of fuel, the industry must be consuming way more in 2022.

Bodaboda Safety Association of Kenya chairman Kelvin Mubadi says that the Combined Investment Scheme, launched in October 2020, will be operationalised soon so members can start making contributions. This will give the riders financial security and also contribute to the economic growth of the sector.