In April 2023, Moses Musinguzi was appointed Head of Operations at SafeBoda, one of Uganda’s iconic startups heading a team of 56 people. The ride-hailing giant has a habit of promoting from within, and Moses’ case is no different. Becoming head of operations was 9 years in the making. His story with SafeBoda began in 2014 when he joined as the startup’s first-ever driver. But this promotion is not his first rodeo at overcoming odds. In fact, he has been overcoming the odds his entire life.
Growing up, Moses’ life was chaotic. He is the only child of his mother, but he had 16 other siblings to jostle with for his father’s attention. He couldn’t do PLE on the first try because he was expelled from school for watching so many movies in “bibandas” and couldn’t register in time. But on the second try, he performed so well that his father decided to pay his school fees for secondary school. However, lightning struck twice in his Senior Two, when he was expelled again for watching movies a lot, and he called it quits on school at that time.
After three years doing menial jobs, he went back to school, but straight to Senior Four skipping Senior Three because he didn’t have enough funds to study for two years. Academically gifted, he still managed to get a second grade. In 2007, he moved to Kampala to work as a mechanic with his uncle. But the urge to finish at least A’Level never waned. “I joined Senior Five at City High School in Kololo in the second term. I completed my UACE and got 19 points in HEG/Ent.” Moses says proudly. “I didn’t want to go to University because of the hustle I had gone through in my education. So I decided to start my own business. I started a workshop to repair boda bodas in Kamwokya with the hope that I would repair Bobi Wine’s boda boda someday”
Joining SafeBoda
Moses amassed a small fortune repairing bikes. But he lost it all in 2014. “All I was left with was just my one boda boda and shs 800,000 yet I had a pregnant wife. I decided to start driving to make ends meet, and got a stage in Kisementi”.
On one of his work shifts, Moses met Rapa Ricky Thomson, the co-founder of safeboda near Endiro where the latter had a meeting. Rapa was Moses’ regular client during his repair days. But he had since moved on from driving passengers to driving tourists on his bike as part of a tourism experience. This was when Rapa introduced the idea of SafeBoda to Moses. Excited, Moses asked Rapa when they would start. “He told me to keep my eyes open, and would let me know when it was time.”
It was through Rapa that Moses met Maxime Dieudonne, the other co-founder of SafeBoda. “One Saturday, I got a call from a random number. It was Max, and he needed a ride from Fat Boyz. Ricky had given him my number” Moses narrates to me. “I took him to his place in Bukoto near Oryx, and he paid me shs 20,000 for a trip that would usually cost shs 6,000. We talked widely on that trip about the future of the boda boda industry and the challenges. He told me the future was coming, and he wanted me to be part of it. I was 110% in.”
When SafeBoda launched in August 2014, Moses joined alongside 9 other boda boda drivers who were in Ricky’s circle. “We used to meet at the Kyebando office on Saturdays as the first group of riders to interact, build the community and how we could improve. We also used to recruit other drivers at our stages. I was lucky that I could communicate in English with Max and Alastair and so I became the Community Onboarding Lead to act as a bridge between the boda bodas and the founders.”
Inside Uganda’s Property Market: Broll Uganda’s Moses Lutalo on Sector Realities and the Signals Investors Can’t IgnoreBut Moses did this part-time. He would be at the office for the morning hours, then drive in the afternoon. He continued in another role doing GPS installations when safeboda introduced the GPS tracker in the app and then also offered feedback to the tech team when building he was tasked with training fellow boda boda riders on how to use the app effectively when it was done. He moved into a full-time role in management, becoming operations manager in 2017.
Moses’ highlights at SafeBoda have been seeing SafeBoda grow from Kyebando to two markets in Kenya and Nigeria. “I also got a chance to fly to those countries to train our drivers.” Another highlight has been seeing SafeBoda consistently hit 10,000 drivers and also the launch of the SafeCar vertical.
The launch of the SafeCar vertical is personal to him. “Post Covid-19, a new vice of drivers negotiating off app came up within the ride-hailing industry, especially with the 4-wheelers and this greatly impacted the customer experience. I led the team ensuring driver quality in our SafeCar vertical, and we had only less the 2% of our drivers doing this which changed the narrative and has led to month-on-month growth since launch.”
But his lowest moments scarred him. “In February 2020, we had our best day ever with 80,000 rides completed in a single day. A month later, Covid-19 hit and boda bodas were stopped. We moved from 80,000 rides to just 10. It was a very stressful time for us and people lost their jobs. The drivers’ earnings plummeted and we had to close some markets”.
He credits his growth from just being a boda boda rider to heading operations, effectively swapping the wheel for a corner office, to constantly learning and exhibiting what you learn. “I spent a lot of time learning on YouTube. We had a Kenyan software developer who I used to teach Luganda. And in exchange, he told me something new to learn every day in the tech world. I learnt how to type fast on a laptop, learnt Excel and PowerPoint presentations. I also learnt so many other digital skills to fit in as the company evolved.”
He also models his leadership style by being a role model and very collaborative. “If I come to the office at 11 AM, it means that I am setting a precedent for my team to come to the office at 11 AM or even work from home. But I come as early as possible to set an example for my team. I also don’t pass any decision without involving my team. I seek their input.” he tells me as we wrap up our conversation.
