Solange Uwingabiye was unable to afford a motorbike that could help her get income to contribute to the welfare of her family.
Now, the 30-year-old mother of two is all smiles as she is among 20 women who will get livelihoods through electric motorcycle taxi service, under the support of BK Foundation.
"I am very happy with the consideration made to help me get a motorcycle, because I could not afford it on my own,” Uwingabiye, the Gasabo District resident, told The New Times, during an event to provide the 20 motorcycles to women, on Friday, March 3, in Kigali.
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The BK Foundation management said that as part of its commitment to women empowerment, and environmental conservation, sponsored SAFI Universal Link E-Mobility (SUL) E-Mobility’s Women Empowerment in Entrepreneurship (W.E.I.E) initiative.
The CEO of BK Group, Béata Habyarimana, said that the Group’s Foundation invested over Rwf50 million in this initiative to provide 20 free electric motorcycles to women.
She pointed out that BK Group created its fifth subsidiary – the BK Foundation – as a firm meant to support, through grants, the development of the Rwandan society under three components namely education, innovation, and environmental conservation.
"The fact that these motorcycles are powered by electricity is our contribution to environmental protection in Rwanda, while supporting women to achieve financial development as they will be generating income through driving, and utilizing the basic motorcycle fixing skills that they were equipped with,” she said.
Beata reiterated BK Group’s position to devise innovative initiatives to curb and mitigate the carbon emissions. "We are working towards identifying, mitigating and avoiding all GHG emissions in all scope levels for the purpose of achieving our net zero strategy.” She continued.
Yves Kayiranga, SUL E-Mobility’s Women Empowerment in Entrepreneurship (W.E.I.E) project coordinator, said that the beneficiary women were provided with training in driving, assembling the motorcycles, adding that they want to have more women benefiting from such an initiative.
"We believe that one motorbike can financially transform the lives of their entire families. They can help their sisters, they can help their brothers, they can help their husbands, they can help their children, and also their neighbours,” she said.
"We take this occasion to encourage more sponsors and donors to support this initiative as we join our efforts to economically uplift the lives of young women,” she said.
Increasing women’s participation in transport sector
Silas Ngayaboshya, the Director General of Gender Promotion and Women Empowerment at the Ministry of Gender and Family promotion, said that the beneficiary women motorcycle riders "are invading a male-dominated field.”
He indicated that women have been underrepresented in the transport and storage sector.
Females accounted for only 2.7 per cent of the people employed in that area, according to the labour force survey of May 2022, by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda.
According to information from the project, the motorcycles will be managed through the cooperative of women engaged in motorcycle taxi operations – under the name of Zamuka – with a view to avoid a situation where some of the beneficiaries might sell, or be in a situation forcing them to sell them, an issue that could divert the intended impact.