How greed f??cked the Uber business model in Africa.

I will always remember my first ride. Somewhat apprehensive, I made the booking on the App. A few minutes later a shiny, almost-brand-new, brown-bronze VW Polo was waiting at the office front door. In the driver seat was a barely twenty-year-old, bright eyed, young man.

“Jump in the front seat!” he said excitedly.

“It is a bit tense with the taxi drivers, and with you in the back they will immediately notice, I am an Uber driver.”

I obliged, admittedly somewhat irate. In the back I could mind my own business, but riding shotgun meant that I would have to make small talk with a stranger who I may never see again. We were off, and he was chatty, but not in an irritating way. It was not long before I found myself enjoying the conversation.

“So how long have you been doing this Uber thing?” I asked.

“A few months” he said, “but I absolutely love it. I used to work at a hotel front desk, earning less than 10k a month. Now I earn three times that amount and I am my own boss. I bought this car brand new and it will be paid off within 2 years.”

The trip to the airport felt much shorter than the normal 40 minutes and I said goodbye and wished the young man well.

I was in good spirit. The talk was pleasant, the business principle was sound and the Uber technology was set to create opportunities for everyone.

But it did not last.

A few months later I heard about people buying fleets of cars and then employing drivers to Uber people around. I immediately knew the original intent was doomed. Not so much for Uber and the fleet owners, but almost certainly for those self-employed individuals who dreamed of having their own business.

As more and more Uber vehicles made it to our streets, Uber started cutting prices to stimulate demand. The owners of the fleets were pocketing millions every month, but with the reduced fares the earning potential of single vehicle owners, such as the young man I met on my first ride, was dramatically reduced.

Leaving your steady job to become a self employed Uber driver, no longer seemed that attractive. The income for those working for fleet owners was hovering around minimum wage, and this while the fleet owners themselves, were seeing a return on their initial capital investment in only a few months.

At more or less the same time, the quality of the service started to deteriorate dramatically. Drivers did not own the vehicles and as a result, keeping it clean and roadworthy were the least of their concerns. The young chatty driver was replaced by individuals who were understandably miserable and disgruntled about their long hours and low remuneration.

Yes, in an attempt to maintain the level of service, Uber has a grading system in place, but if 90% of the industry lowers it standards then the low standard becomes the benchmark. When is the last time you rejected a ride because a car was dirty? Especially considering you had to wait 15 minutes for a driver to accept your hail request. The fact that grading is reciprocal makes it even less effective. 'You show me yours and I will show you mine', has created a stalemate and rather than be downgraded by the driver to the point where no one accepts your ride requests anymore, you score your driver way above the actual quality of your experience.

What started out as a business model with a very low barrier to entry and an opportunity for anyone to earn a decent living and be their own boss, was financially raped beyond recognition by the greed of those who have the means.

Greed thrives in Africa for two reasons:

• There are those individuals with enough money to sustain a loss making startup, while choking the life out of the small business owner and,
• The extent of this continent’s poverty allows for people to be abused beyond reason, because of their desperation to earn a living wage.

The only way to change the narrative in Africa is by reawakening our humanity. Removing greed only requires a small tweak in the formula. Instead of those who have, accumulating even more, they need to intentionally create opportunities for those who do not have. When we eradicate extreme poverty everybody wins, but to eradicate extreme poverty we have to end our love affair with greed.?