Tanzania’s risky rise as the bodaboda capital of Africa
Bodaboda riders passing at the Tanzanite Bridge in Dar es Salaam. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- Some sources reveal that 16,000 people lose their lives in accidents annually, mostly because of bodabodas. The surge in healthcare costs places a heavy burden on the healthcare system. Motorcycles are not a public transport solution, so this is the price we are paying for our lack of leadership.
In the next 30 years, 350 million African youths will join the labour market. If the status quo persists, only two percent will find formal employment, thirty-eight percent will find informal employment, and the rest will be unemployed. This is a precarious scenario with potentially severe consequences if not managed proactively.
Tanzania is already grappling with the challenge, with 900,000 youths entering the job market annually. Given how young the population is, those numbers will continue to surge forward, precipitating bigger challenges for decades.
Among these challenges is the surge in bodaboda riders, estimated at 1.6 million, highlighting the high demand for their services, particularly in urban centres where daily earnings can reach 30,000. While their pursuit of survival is understandable, the implications of engaging a massive youth population in a non-developmental job are profound.
Notoriously, the poorly trained and ill-disciplined riders make roads significantly more dangerous for other users. Some sources reveal that 16,000 people lose their lives in accidents annually, mostly because of bodabodas. The surge in healthcare costs places a heavy burden on the healthcare system. Motorcycles are not a public transport solution, so this is the price we are paying for our lack of leadership.
Beyond the perilous roads, bodabodas carry a stigma of criminal association, including theft, drugs, and violence, sullying the industry’s reputation. The ramifications extend to moral issues, such as sexual relationships with students. It looks like we are solving one problem by creating another.
Beneath these challenges lies an often-overlooked issue—the future of a nation with a vast youth population engaged in jobs that contribute little to knowledge or skill enhancement. Tanzania grapples with a significant hurdle in human capital development, hindering progress in various sectors. The lack of a critical mass of skills perpetuates the presence of foreigners even in low-level jobs, pointing to a vital need for skill development.
Skills development can occur in two ways – through formal education, and apprenticeships and on-the-job training. With only a handful of its people with tertiary education, it is the latter that offers some hope of uplifting the masses from being completely unskilled to the level where they contribute meaningfully to development.
This is majorly how we get most of our fundis today. Unskilled individuals will start their journeys by assisting others, and within a year or two, they become somewhat proficient at what they do. The method is not foolproof – the quality of many so-called fundis is still quite low (and I move that we need to certify people before they are permitted to do certain works) – but at least it lays the foundation for a gradual buildup towards a skilled workforce.
The power of exposure to certain skills becomes evident in the stories of many individuals. The Wright Brothers’ exposure to bicycle mechanics led to their invention of a controllable aircraft. Thomas Edison’s exposure to telegraphy and newspaper sales unleashed his entrepreneurial inventions. Albert Einstein’s work at a Swiss Patent Office unleashed his physics genius. Prolonged exposure to a certain skill leads to progress and innovation.
I see the same power at work in the transformation of China. Many Chinese entrepreneurs who started as unskilled labourers in cloth, shoe, or some other factories, moved away later with solid skills to replicate what they had gone through as they hired and trained others. Initially, the world made fun of the ‘Made in China’ brand, but today, as China commands almost one-third of global manufacturing output, no one is laughing anymore.
In contrast, the bodaboda phenomenon offers little in terms of skills and innovations for the millions engaged in the business, perpetuating a cycle of survival with minimal social progress. Yes, we may have new fundis that service the bodabodas, we may have stores selling spare parts, and, ultimately, the government is collecting billions indirectly through this operation, but to the riders and the society at large, the future is bleak.
We cannot run the nation this way if we wish the future to be different. We must steer clear of dead-ended roads if we expect social transformation. Otherwise, future historians will refer to this as a lost generation.
Thankfully, there are better ways. There are ways that can absorb millions and set them on a path of continuous development thus promising societal transformation. For example, proper investments in developing agriculture, industries, tourism, real estate, and Information Technology can unlock that potential. However, this requires a re-evaluation of the government’s role in Tanzania’s economic landscape. Crowning Tanzania the bodaboda king of Africa is not one of them.
What we witness in the labyrinth of bodabodas weaving through our roads is not just a chaotic dance of motorcycles but a perilous gamble with Tanzania’s future. The current trajectory offers no chance for progress since the bodaboda phenomenon leaves millions with no employable skills after years in the trade. The government must awaken to the perils of relying on bodabodas as a panacea for youth unemployment, so as to ensure a brighter and more transformative future for Tanzania.
