SafeMotos: Rwanda’s answer to Uber
The “safe” in SafeMotos is not there by chance. Africa’s
roads are the most dangerous in the world, with traffic
accidents causing more deaths than malaria in many
countries. In Rwanda, 80% of accidents involve the 20,000
“mototaxis” in the capital, Kigali. Moto accidents are the
second leading cause of death in Rwanda after HIV/Aids.
To address this issue, in 2010 business partners Peter
Kariuki and Barrett Nash came up with an app through which
users could order taxis piloted by experienced drivers who
have been screened and are then monitored for safe driving
using data collected by telemetric sensors in their
smartphones. More than 400,000 journeys have been
arranged through SafeMotos in Kigali; the service is now
launching in Kinshasa, Africa’s third largest city. SafeMotos
was on the Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2018 shortlist for
the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.
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