SafeBoda
| |||
| Industry | Transportation network company, Ecommerce | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2015 | ||
| Founders | Maxime Dieudonne, Rapa Thomson Ricky and Alastair Sussock | ||
| Headquarters | Kampala | ||
Area served | Uganda, Nigeria | ||
| Website | safeboda | ||
SafeBoda is a motorcycle taxi (Boda boda) app that offers motorbike-hailing, e-commerce, package and food delivery services headquartered in Kampala and operating in Uganda and Nigeria.
History
Between November 2014 and early 2015, SafeBoda was co-founded by Maxime Dieudonne, Rapa Thomson Ricky, and Alastair Sussock after Ricky's loss of a friend in a motorcycle accident revealed to him the need for consciousness about road safety.[1] Ricky would be later named by Forbes among its "30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs In Africa" of 2018.[2]
In June 2018, SafeBoda expanded into Kenya with primary operations beginning in Nairobi. The company would later expand operations to Mombasa in 2019, but operations in the country were put on hold in November 2020 following the prevalence of COVID-19 and its impact on the transport business.[3]
In March 2020, SafeBoda officially started operations in Nigeria's south-western city, Ibadan.[4] The company hired Babajide Duroshora to lead the country operations and by the time he left the company for M-Kopa Solar[5], SafeBoda had registered at least 5,000 drivers and completed close to two million rides across a year of operation.
Business model
Drivers pay a fee to sign up for the service. These then receive ride requests from customers over the app. The company takes a percentage of revenue from each ride. SafeBoda drivers are trained and given two helmets, one for them and the other for the customer. They also receive hygiene hairnets to ensure acceptance and multiple helmet use. All SafeBoda drivers are identified with a number and are tracked through the company system.
In December 2019, SafeBoda added food, delivery, and payment offerings to its app, to add to the user's ability to take rides. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and following lockdown measures and restrictions that put public transport on hold, SafeBoda changed its business model to moving goods and packages.
In a 2018 interview with Reuters, co-founder Ricky Thompson Rapa said that the company plans to expand to at least 20 African cities.[6]
Data privacy policy Controversy
In February 2019, The Ugandan Parliament enacted the Data Protection and Privacy Act, which regulates and oversees the processing of personal data. In July 2020, Unwanted Witness released a report with concerns of possible personal data evasion of the Act by SafeBoda.
A petition was filed to the Speaker of Parliament who in turn ordered the National Information Technology Authority (NITA – U) to conduct investigations into the concerns. A NITA-U investigation found that SafeBoda's 2017 Data Privacy Policy and 2019 Data Protection Policy were not transparent enough and did not provide information on third-party recipients of users' personal data, and that found that the app shared users’ data with a US behavioral analysis company.[7]
References
- ↑ "Uganda’s SafeBoda and the art of motorcycle mass transit", 1 June 2021, Andres Schipani, Financial Times
- ↑ "30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs In Africa 2018", 18 April 2018, Mfonobong Nsehe, Forbes
- ↑ "Ride-hailing startup SafeBoda quits Kenya, citing impact of COVID-19", 18 November 2020, Tom Jackson, Disrupt Africa
- ↑ "SafeBoda bypasses Nigeria's commercial capital in its market foray", 4 March 2020, Olumuyiwa Olowogboyega, TechCabal
- ↑ "Ex-SafeBoda executive Babajide Duroshola joins M-KOPA to lead expansion into Nigeria", 12 July 2021, Tage Kene-Okafor, Tech Crunch
- ↑ "Uganda's SafeBoda ride-hailing service hopes to expand across Africa", 11 October 2018, Elias Biryabarema, Reuters
- ↑ "SafeBoda illegally shared users’ data with US company - NITA-U", 8 February 2021, Christine Kasemiire, Daily Monitor
External links
This article "SafeBoda" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles taken from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be accessed on Wikipedia's Draft Namespace.