Based in Kampala, Uganda, Tugende is a for-profit social enterprise using asset finance, technology, and a high touch customer support model to help motorcycle taxi drivers and other informal sector entrepreneurs own income-generating assets
In Uganda, where unemployment rates are high, many young people and adults with little to no education, usually supporting extended families, work as motorcycle taxi drivers (boda-bodas).
Most motorcycle taxi or boda-boda drivers cannot afford a motorcycle, nor access financing from mainstream options to buy one. Instead, they use a large portion of their earnings to rent their motorcycles and their incomes are, therefore, reduced.
Tugende helps boda-boda drivers own an income-generating asset, directly improving their livelihoods and providing a pathway out of poverty by:
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Facilitating access to a stable source of income for the drivers and their families, as their income roughly doubles from USD 5/day before ownership to USD 10/day afterwards.
- Allowing them to own a productive asset with significant resale value at the end of the 20-month financing period.
- Providing several other benefits such as insurance, driving permits, safety training, financial literacy training and other products.
- Tugende itself is a job-creating company. A leased motorcycle increases the number of employed individuals by more than one, each one supporting both the driver as well as an average of 6 dependents.