Meals, drinks riding businesses to profits
This Christmas, when you order your favourite meal and a bottle of Coca-Cola on Glovo or Uber eats, a boda boda rider is in businesses underlining the evolution of transport businesses in the age of door-to-door delivery.
Kenya’s transport businesses are booming with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) indicating that the sector grew fastest under the rebased economy this year.
The contribution of transportation activities in the new series was found to be higher by 2.8 points to 10.8 percent.
KNBS said that while traditional transport activities such as rail, pipeline, road, water or air and associated trades such as terminal and parking facilities, cargo handling, and storage went up, a new phenomenon that digitized transport was noticed.
Transportation activities in Kenya include matatus, boda boda, trucks, pick-ups, and lorries involved in the transportation of goods, taxis including those using digital platforms, activities of ports, warehousing and similar others.
The pandemic has opened up opportunities especially in the transport sector as businesses were challenged to keep innovating and find new ways to meet the shift in consumers’ needs and preferences.
Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola for instance launched a new online platform, ‘Dial A Coke’ in Kenya, which enables one to access products at their point of convenience and safety – indeed, making them only one Coke away from each other, and very much in line with this new campaign.
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The fizzy drinks company says this evolution has kept scores in business and is the real magic that the company would like to celebrate this Christmas.
“The magic is in how we will all respond to the challenges we face today and in the future, innovating to meet consumer needs and preferences, and the situations that surround them,” Vice President, Coca-Cola East and Central Africa franchise, Debra Mallowah, said.
Transport business is transforming the Kenyan economy, allowing young people to get meaningful income generation opportunities as self-employed workers.
Kenya has for a long time relied heavily on agriculture but that is changing as the service sector takes the front row seat in growing the economy.
Riders making delivery orders, ferrying passengers, and helping meet the last-mile logistical challenges are transforming the Kenyan economy in a significant way.
This Christmas, your shopping, the meal, and the bottle of Coca-Cola that will open happiness in your home will probably be delivered at your home by a boda boda.
