The price of becoming your own boss: insights from Kampala’s financially included moto-taxis

this research note offers an introduction to and critique of contemporary vehicle financing in Uganda’s motorcycle-taxi (boda boda) industry. Informal workers in this sector have long accessed motorcycles through a daily rental-based system known as kibaluwa. however, over the past15 years a new wave of international asset financers have entered the fray, selling Ugandan moto-taxi riders the tantalising dream of ‘being your own boss’ through hire-purchase (or ‘ride-to-own’) credit schemes. Drawing on original interview- and survey-based data from the Ugandan capital, Kampala, this note drills through the glossy promotional material used to market these products to put forward a more grounded, worker-centred and critical perspective on what it means tobe and become a ‘financially included’ informal worker. It shows that despite delivering lucrative, if temporary, outcomes for riders once they have successfully completed hire-purchase, for the long duration of there payment schedule riders are exposed to new risks, new costs and new pressures. a clear conclusion is reached: for Uganda’s financially included moto-taxis, the powerful allure and rewarding experience of being one’s own boss is very different to the arduous process of becoming one.