Ricky Rapa Thompson (pictured) was a commercial boda boda rider himself before he co-founded SafeBoda. COURTESY PHOTO.
Ricky Rapa Thomson, co-founder and director of one of the fastest growing companies in Africa, SafeBoda attributes his success and fearlessness to “the blessings and grace of God that is with me.”
Ricky revealed during an exclusive interview with Vine Talks, a Christian program that seeks to inspire people to live a fruitful life, that despite dropping out of school at a very tender age, God enabled him set up what has become the backbone of road transportation in Uganda.
“I’m really thankful to God for whatever I have become,” he said. “It is not because of me. It is not that I’m special. It is like a blessing that just rained upon me to be able to do the service. I give glory to God for that,” he added.
Before co-founding SafeBoda, Ricky Rapa Thomson started as a security guard, then a boda driver and then founded a city tour guide company.
Here are the major highlights from his interview with Vine Talks:
SafeBoda: How it all started
I come from a family of nine. I did not go that far with my education. I dropped out of school in the year 2016 – during my senior four. I later made it to Kampala as a security guard.
I joined the Boda boda industry just like any other person would. I unfortunately lost a very good friend in a boda related accident, and transitioned to become an advocate of road safety.
During each ride, I started carrying an extra helmet for my customers. It is then that I met some people who said, ‘Ricky we could do something together and build something big out of this.’ We came together as a team, and we were able to start what is now known as Safeboda today.
Thinking big
SafeBoda operations legally started around February 2015. We kept growing and by the end of 2015, we had around 150 drivers. By the end of 2016, we hit around 1300 drivers, and by the end of 2017 we hit around 3000 drivers. In 2018, we hit around 8000 drivers. Today we have over 17,000 drivers in Kampala. We’ve also expanded to Nairobi, Mombasa. We’re looking at opening operation in Nigeria as well.
We have very special interest for different cities in Africa, because we know for sure that there’s been a lot of entry of Boda bodas into these different cities. We know that in most cities in Africa the Boda boda industry is unregulated. There’s no proper formula of what you’re supposed to go through to become a Boda boda rider, and we know that as SafeBoda, we are going to help the world or Africa define them.
When you look at the infrastructural development, is really allows Boda bodas to exist for a few decades to come. That is why we opened the SafeBoda Academy, the first of its kind in Africa.
A Life beyond Self: Improving the industry for drivers, passengers
This is an industry that we joined with a lot of passion and interest. And we knew that there was a real problem; lives being lost. A performance report released by the UN in 2018 showed that there were 10 people dying as a result of boda accidents every single day in Kampala.
A study conducted at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, by researchers at Makerere University, identified approximately 40% of trauma cases at the hospital to be due to boda-boda accidents. Over 30% of road accidents are being contributed by the boda industry. Everyone knows that there’s a real problem in the boda industry.
Together with my team, I believe we have achieved tremendous success today. As I speak, 100% of our drivers wear helmets. This is something that was not seen before.
Initially, less than 30% of boda riders used to wear helmets. Today, over 40% of our customers are embracing the initiative of wearing helmets. Our drivers today stop by the traffic light. This is something that had never been seen before. I believe we have brought change in the industry. And I think that’s a big success.
Closing the education gap
Let me speak to the young people. It is very important for you to know that even when you are educated, you can be a failure in life – I think your level of education doesn’t define your success in life.
This is something that I always tell many people, you need the knowledge to really help you be able to make informed kind of decisions. It is very, very critical. But no one should think that when you’re a senior four drop out, you cannot make change in the community.
There is something very important that even some people who are graduates really lack. It is called attitude. You should have the ability to process information. Your ability to work with people is what is important. Once you have that kind of leadership skill, it doesn’t matter how many degrees you have.
What kind of people do you relate with? Are they the right group of people? Do you accommodate other people’s opinion as well? Your ability to process information and be able to work and relate with other people is very important.
Education is very important. But without it, you might still be very successful if you have the right attitude. You need to know that you being on top, someone is holding the ladder. If you reach up there, and then all of a sudden you twist things and forget other people were actually doing all the operational work, you losing the meaning of life.
Together we achieve more
When we started SafeBoda, we had a very strong belief in ourselves, and we knew for sure, together, we can do more and achieve better. We knew that when we come up individually, we cannot achieve the much that we could have achieved if we’re together.
This doesn’t mean that when you’re working together with people, you’re not going to disagree with them. Time is going to come when you will disagree with them. However, that does not mean that you become enemies.
At Safeboda we have a saying that ‘I can disagree, but I commit.’ Let us test it. A team needs to be able to influence changes. That’s leadership. You need to be able to accommodate other people. If people don’t feel like they’re being appreciated, they’ll even leave.
Life without you impacting other people’s lives is meaningless.
