This archive report was first published on 7 July 2019.
SafeMotos Expands to Kinshasa, Africa's Third-Biggest City ¶
Published on July 7, 2019
SafeMotos, an on-demand ride-hailing system focusing on motorcycle taxis in Kinshasa and Kigali, is excited to be a first mover in Kinshasa, Africa's third-biggest city.
Speaking to TechMoran, Barrett Nash, co-founder and CEO of CanGo (formerly SafeMotos), believes that CanGo can grow into being a single app that provides many on-demand services in one.
My Kenyan cofounder Peter and I were roommates in Kigali before we launched SafeMotos, Nash explained. We'd often take motorcycle taxis to meet at our favourite bars. We'd always jump off and go 'wow, that guy almost killed me.' As aspiring entrepreneurs at the time, we decided to do something about it: let's make motorcycle taxis safe to use.
SafeMotos has already trained a cohort of female drivers in Kigali, and is investigating opening a school for drivers in Kinshasa through the SafeMotos Institute.
These stories always make me feel positive, Nash said. We have examples of drivers getting married and buying houses due to the stability that being with SafeMotos allows them.
SafeMotos is a positive thing for a city as it professionalizes a highly informal marketplace, Nash added.
Motorcycles alone cannot solve the urban transport and logistics problem, Nash noted. If I was a billionaire overnight, I'd put it into zeppelins, which I believe would be a highly viable solution to African intercity and intracity transportation challenges.
