NAIROBI, Jan 15 – Abedi Muange is an entrepreneur in Nairobi travelling a new path to help taxi drivers to acquire cars on drive to own basis. He co-founded Ndai Africa, a company that helps drivers not only to get cars to drive but to own them as well.
Abedi says that he had bought a car and find a driver to work for him. Soon, the driver became rogue
and failed to remit the money they had agreed upon. Even worse, the driver didn’t take good care of
the car since he didn’t own it. From this experience, he saw an opportunity that he can jump into.
“I bought a car, and looked for a driver. The driver was supposed to pay me a certain amount per
week but the driver at times would not remit the money, and he didn’t took good care of the car
because it’s not his.This is because he was not motivated since he wasn’t working to achieve a certain
goal,” Abedi shares.
Solving the Problem
According to Abedi, the problem emerged between the owners and drivers of taxis when they fail to
remit the required amount. This causes serious misunderstanding between the two and eventually
termination of driving contract.
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“When online taxi came to Kenya, people would go buy a car then you look for a driver who is going
to to pay you maybe on weekly or daily basis depending on your arrangement with the driver. So out
of that arrangement, actual problem emerged between the owner of the car and the driver. It
became difficult to manage unemployed driver,” he says.
From observation, and his business partner decide to start a Ndai Africa, a company that give cars to
drivers on drive to own basis. To him, this is a genuine way of ensuring taxi drivers are motivated to
work knowing that at the end, they will own that car. From they bought a few cars and get started.
They launched in 2021 September.
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The drivers have to go through a vetting process before being given a car. However, the driver is not
required to pay any deposit but only have meet minimum requirements which includes having
worked as a taxi driver for a minimum of one year and submitting personal details.
“Myself and my partner bought a few cars then we decided now we are going to provide cars to
drivers on a drive to own contract where the driver is going to get this car after qualifying in our
vetting process and now they are working to own this vehicle,” he says.
