Rickshaw Possibilities

I’m excited because the rickshaw taxis that our partner church has been talking about buying for over a year now have finally been purchased and are at the national church office. There will be a week delay as there is a conference and special visitors coming, but then the rest of the plans will kick-in to get the drivers up-to-speed for everything they will need to be successful. We’ve helped our partners think through a lot of these things with advice from others included, so it's a happy time to see this on the verge of happening. It also makes me a little apprehensive, because all that we’ve read about helping with businesses in Africa and the stories we’ve heard from people who’ve gone before us point to the fact that most of the time things don’t go as planned.

But, besides delays in funding that were mainly a stateside issue, things have gone to plan so far. We have a lot of confidence in the main role players, although like business anywhere in the world there are still a lot of uncertainties. They’ve gotten good prices on buying the taxis, but will they get good work-ethic from the new drivers? The drivers are unemployed youth from the local churches, so we hope it will be a great opportunity for them.  But will the drivers be able to keep their taxis in good shape on the road and be able to find enough fares?  Each driver is supposed to hand-over about $8 a day from their profits.  This is a lot, but a year ago there were some drivers who were able to bring in $40 on a good day. The market is harder now with more taxis on the road, but it should only take 20 riders to make the $8 a day (and you can take up to 5 riders at a time). If a driver could double that and make $8 for himself a day, that would be significantly more than people like our guard who make $3 a day, which is pretty good compared to unskilled day laborers. There are many other factors that can get in the way though too.  But the end purpose is also exciting- to pass this income on in the form of capital to let evangelists in villages start their own businesses and support their families.

--El Padre