By Kawesa Richard
Ampa Gw’empa is the latest hit song sang by an artist who goes by the stage name ‘Mayor’.
Mayor is a boda boda rider who is proud of his job and the many people he has introduced to the sector over the last 20 years.
The COVID-induced lock down played a big role in shifting Mayor’s mindset about his job. His settled way of thinking was violently jolted when he witnessed firsthand the volume of degree-holders and teachers who became boda riders. All of a sudden, market vendors, causal construction workers and boda boda riders became more important service providers than lawyers. In fact, unlike learned-friends, boda riders were officially classified and considered as essential workers.
Perhaps it is this ‘essential’ sense of importance and identity that could explain why Mayor is not only proud of his boda boda but also happy to have contributed to attracting at least a few of the over 2.2 million Ugandans that the boda sector employs.
It is said that the power of an economy is in the number of transactions per unit time. Boda bodas are leading TGs (Transaction Generators) in this economy, on average earning Shs 40,000 (net) per day, which could easily translate to a daily income of Uganda Shillings 88 billion (or USD. 24 million).
In a social media pre-occupied era of formal workers, it is perhaps vital that we heed to Mayor’s wisdom when in his song he says “ekimpa sente kyempa obudde”, meaning “I only give time to that which brings me money”. In the boda boda business, there is no room for time wasting, time literally translates to transactions and money. Unlike formal workers who measure their transactions (salary) on a monthly basis, the boda boda’s sensitivity to daily income is highly developed and attuned to time. The more errands or trips a rider makes in a day, the more money.
The Ampa Gw’empa philosophy not only resonates with the corporate and political class (who can’t work where they don’t earn) but also the religious worldview that is embodied in “give and it shall be given to you, full and over flowing”.
In Ampa Gw’empa, Mayor has spoken for the informal sector but who in the formal sector will see the opportunity of working with him to invite his fellow riders to save and invest some of that USD 24 million daily income that they are currently spending on betting, booze and brothels?
The Author is a Mindset Specialist and LEAD Coordinator of Another Life Initiative