Most riders in Kampala can take home at least Shs15,000 per day and Shs450,000 per month in profit, while ambitious, hard-working, and lucky drivers can earn even more. At the very minimum, Kibikwamu says, riders in the Boda Boda 2010 Association earn at least Shs300,000 per month. “It depends on how lucky you are,” Thomson said. “It’s like hunting. The boda boda business is all about hunting. Lucky riders that find passengers who pay more than they should can earn up to Shs100,000 per day.”
On average, drivers spend at least Shs8,000 per day on fuel and Shs50,000 per month maintaining their bikes. Around half of the riders in Kampala rent their motorcycles at a rate of Shs60,000 per week, but even those who rent their bikes are able to earn a profit. Because the wages in the boda boda business greatly exceed those for other low-skilled jobs in sectors like construction, security, and retail, many young men flock to the boda industry from other professions.
Bufulwa used to work as a newspaper vendor, where he had to sell over 100 newspapers to make a third of his daily wage as a boda rider. Most days, he was only able to sell around 30 copies, which earned him Shs4,000, barely enough to buy a meal.
Medie Sebi Ssuna was a motorcycle mechanic who used to earn around Shs70,000 per week, but in 2001, he discovered that he could make more money by riding the bodas he used to repair. Now, he has been in the industry for more than a decade and he is the Managing Director of Tugende LLC, a business that gives loans to drivers so that they can own their own motorcycles.
According to Ssuna, the industry has changed a lot in the past decade and greater competition has affected drivers’ profits. “You cannot make as much money as we used to make in 2001,” he says, “But at least no one goes home without anything. Although the riders are many, the passengers are more because of the traffic jam. It is very possible to support a family by being a boda boda rider.”
As the supply of drivers reaches a critical mass in central Kampala, Michael Wilkerson, the Co-Founder and CEO of Tugende LLC, said many drivers are spreading to the suburbs and other Ugandan cities, where boda bodas were a rare sight several years before. Now, the industry that started in Kampala in 1994, has expanded across the country.