10 June 2022

Ugandan fintech Boda Boda Banja, which provides un-or underbanked people with the opportunity to buy or lease a motorbike or ‘boda boda’, has hired mobile operator Telecom26 to deploy IoT to help track down stolen motorcycles in the east African country.

Motorbike theft is a big problem across Uganda with solo drivers seen as easy targets for thieves, both companies said. They added that in 2021 more than 170 motorcycles were stolen from members of the Gulu West and Gulu East Boda-Boda Associations in Northern Uganda.

In a bid to keep the motorbikes that it finances more secure, and to locate them if they are stolen, Boda Boda Banja is now installing a tracker on each motorbike.

Telecom26’s Global SIM cards are embedded within the trackers providing always-on connectivity. In the event, that a bike is stolen the location of the tracker can be immediately identified, the police alerted and the bike recovered.

Boda Boda Banja evaluated a number of different connectivity options before choosing Telecom26’s Global SIMs, according to the press release.

“We don’t want our customers to risk their own safety and defend their bikes, but we do want them to be able to find them. Telecom26’s Global SIM cards are absolutely perfect,” Saurabh Jain, general manager at Boda Boda Banja. “They are easy to install within a tracker and can jump between the different mobile networks both within Uganda, and on our borders where networks overlap”.

Telecom26’s Global SIM cards were developed with the specific goal of improving connectivity in remote and rural areas. They enable devices to automatically access and switch between multiple cellular networks both in-country and across borders to ensure that they are using the best performing service at any one time.