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Boda boda riders in Karamoja want President Museveni to stop the pressure mounted on them by the companies that sold them motorcycles on loan
Moroto, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A group of young people who have been earning a living through operating boda boda business in Karamoja have asked President Museveni to stop the pressure mounted on them by the companies that sold them motorcycles on loan.
The boda boda men who spoke to URN on Thursday said paying the loans has become difficult given the fact that all the avenues they used for getting money for paying the loans have been blocked as measures to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Simon Angella, one of the riders and a resident of Moroto municipality said he got a motorcycle on loan and he had been paying 80,000 Shillings per month into the account of the company but from last month, he has not deposited anything.
Angella said the company is now threatening to drag him to police for failing to pay the money.
“Yesterday I received a call from the company manager speaking in a tough voice demanding for the money yet I can’t even raise 12,000 Shillings in day,” he said.
Joseph Lomuria, another boda boda rider told URN that when President Museveni declared for the lockdown, he never advised banks and landlords to go slow in demanding re-payment.
“We want the president when his making another state address on Covid-19 to advise the banking institutions to pardon customers and also those companies that sell motorcycles on loan to understand the current situation,” he said. “These people don’t understand the current situation we are in, they don’t know that the inter-district movements have been closed yet that has been a major source of income for boda bodas.”
Mark Losike, another boda boda man said much as the president directed boda bodas to only carry cargo, it’s hard for them to get cargo to be carried in Karamoja.
“From the time the country was locked down, I have only carried cargo twice where I got only 10,000 Shillings and yet when am carrying people in a day, I used to get 60,000 Shillings,” he said.
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