Uganda’s richest man, Sudhir Ruparelia of the Ruparelia Group of Companies, had to jump on boda boda on Wednesday so as to beat traffic jam in the city and arrive to his office early for business.
The businessman was seen on the boda boda around Kololo, dressed in his usual white attire.
This comes at the time when many motorists cannot reach their offices in time due to consistent traffic jam along Kampala roads dusty and muddy-potholed roads.
A 2017 World Bank study says traffic jams are costing Uganda over US$800m (over sh2.8trillion) in lost Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
As of 2014, Uganda’s vehicle population was put at over 500,000 and that the country was adding on 10,000 more cars to the lot yearly. A big number of these are commuter taxis. Cars and station wagons increased from 11,000 in 2002 to over 27,000 in 2009, and motorcycles are increasing almost tenfold from 11,000 to over 100,000.
The report pointed out that the serious traffic congestions are resulting in prolonged travel times, high vehicle operation costs and environmental degradation. They also result in high costs of doing business and are a disincentive to investors. The congestion, it pointed out, was reducing travel periods to snail paces of about 15 km or less per hour.
