The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party has raised concerns about the exorbitant mobile money charges and the Boda Boda debt-financing trap that has allegedly cut short the dreams of many Ugandan youths engaged in the boda boda economy.
According to Robert Centenary, the FDC party Vice chairperson, many youths have joined the boda industry with the hope of working hard to transform their lives, but some have failed to see their dreams come true due to moneylenders who have reportedly imposed high interest rates on loans offered to them.
While speaking to journalists on Monday, August 17th, 2026, at the party headquarters in Najjanankumbi along Entebbe Road, Centenary explained that some youths have been left with no option but to apply for such loans, citing unfavorable government financial and tax policies.
“Most of them did not borrow from a bank. They borrowed from a money lender, a mobile lending app, or financed a motorcycle through an asset-financing company because the formal financial system was never built to reach them,” Centenary said.
He added that the boda boda economy has become one of the main destinations for Uganda’s unemployed and underemployed youth, absorbing large numbers of people whom the formal job market has no room for.
Centenary further alleged that a few of the boda riders own their motorcycles because they acquire them through asset-financing companies and micro-credit firms on hire-purchase terms, where a deposit is followed by monthly, weekly, or daily installments.
“But when they fail to pay, their motorcycles are repossessed over a final shortfall of a few hundred thousand shillings, wiping out nearly everything they had already paid,” he noted.
However, Richard Tusiime, a boda rider at Wandegeya stage, revealed that some asset financing companies that supply them with motorcycles are regulated by the government and some of their customers are protected.
“My word to those who would wish to acquire a motorcycle is that they should first do research about the companies they go to because there are some fake companies. Those who are cheated mostly use those unregulated companies,” Tusiime said.
Centenary also appealed to the government to engage telecom company owners to reduce the mobile money charges, highlighting that some companies are subjecting Ugandans to double taxation.
“The worker sends part of that salary to the village or to a friend through mobile money. Excise duty of 0.5% applies to the withdrawal, and excise duty of 15% applies to the service fee charged on the transaction. These are tax two and tax three, charged on money that has already been taxed once,” he said.
According to Centenary, the government should instead focus on taxing telecom companies’ profits and reduce the burden on ordinary citizens.
Media reports indicate 1.2 million people work as boda boda riders in Uganda, which makes the motorcycle taxi business the second largest employer in the country, right after agriculture.
