Rwandan women embrace job opportunities in transport sector

KIGALI, July 14  — In Rwanda, public transport is a sector that has traditionally been dominated by men alone. But it is now possible to see women in control of motorcycle taxis and minibus taxis in the capital Kigali, and elsewhere in the country.
At a time when the Rwandan labour market has been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate has increased from 12 percent in February 2020 to 16 percent at the end of September 2020.
Some women in the country have crossed a new cultural barrier and exercise an exclusively male activity in the market of commercial transport by motorbikes and minibuses.
Ayinkamiye Angelique is one of these women. At the age of 25, she is a biker in the city of Muhanga, in the centre of the country. For her, the beginnings were difficult.
“At first, people didn’t accept our presence and said they had never heard of women riding motorcycles, that it was impossible. But they started to get used to it,” she says. According to her, like other women pioneers, public transport is a real visa for financial autonomy.
“This job is very important to me because it helps me take care of my children, have a roof over my head and gives me enough money to pay my children’s school fees,” said Uwase Vestine, another woman driving a minibus taxi in the city of Kigali.
Fanny Musabwa, a student learning heavy machine at Forever TVET school said that “for me, it was not a problem to attend this school in terms of cultural barriers. I encourage young girls to dare study things like these because it is no longer the affair of men only.”
The Rwanda labour force survey annual report 2021 revealed that females were 0.3 percent employed in the transport sector, compared to 8.3 percent of males, at the age of 16 years and above.
Last June, the Kigali City Council donated more than 100 electrical motorcycles and encouraged women to dare to ride them as part of their development.  (Xinhua)