NAIROBI, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- David Mairu has been operating an online taxi business for the past five years in Kenya's capital city, Nairobi.

The middle-aged man had registered with one of the several taxi-hailing applications that are available in the country.

Mairu said that his business was profitable when he joined the taxi business as he was able to comfortably make ends meet for his young family.

"The car that I currently operate as a taxi was acquired through a soft loan in 2017. I was able to repay the loan over a period of 18 months by making a monthly payment of 40,000 shillings (about 370 U.S. dollars)," Mairu said.

"I am very lucky I finished paying for the car loan before the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Kenya," he added.

Abdul Mohammed, chairman of Online Taxi Drivers of Kenya said that there are an estimated 8,000 digital taxis that operate in the country.

Mohammed said that business among taxi drivers has been on the decline since the various restrictions were put in place by the government to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Mohammed noted that the night-time curfew has dramatically reduced revenues for the public transport sector.

"Our drivers used to make the bulk of their income on Friday and Saturdays nights. This is no longer possible due to the night curfew," he added.

He noted that since online taxi-hailing operators require drivers to have the latest vehicle models, most of them took loans to purchase newer vehicles.

"With declining consumer demand, most drivers had their revenues slashed hence had difficulty in repaying their car loans," he added.

"As we speak most of the drivers have either defaulted on their bank loans or are in the process of selling their cars so that they get out of the taxi business," he said.

He noted that the digital taxi business is currently extremely unprofitable as the new players are joining the industry even as revenues remain depressed.

The chairman said that the industry remains optimistic that as the number of new cases declines and the government restrictions are lifted, the sector will regain the vibrancy it once had.

He observed that demand for taxi services was on the increase in the past five years buoyed mainly by a rising middle class who had disposable incomes to spend on comfortable travel.

Isaac Omwele, another digital taxi driver said that since March when the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Kenya, business has gone down by 60 percent.

"With cases reducing, this is the time now that business is catching up as people regain confidence to use taxis," Omwele said.

"Most of our regular clients were afraid to use our services due to the perceived risk of getting infection through the use of public means of transport," he added.

Michael Mwangi, who is also a taxi driver said that before COVID-19, he used to make 10 trips daily but now he will be lucky to make four trips.

Mwangi expressed confidence that consumers will return in droves to utilize digital taxis as the economy rebounds and normalcy returns. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)