Driving business forward

Mudeyi Six Dieudonné,a 43 year old Rwandan national, lives in Cape Town, South Africa. Like so many versatile gig workers, Mudeyi has various businesses, all of which require adept management skills. One business is as an Uber driver partner. He’s just one example of the over 700 Uber partners in Kenya and South Africa that have benefited from AMI and Uber’s Navigate to Tomorrow programme since 2019.

While Mudeyi has experience running multiple businesses, such as selling fruits and delivering home-cooked meals, he considers enrolling in the AMI’s virtual programme as a turning point for him.

“It’s been eye-opening for me,” he says. When I heard about the course through Uber, I grabbed the opportunity. I wanted to learn how to turn my ideas into action.”

In 2019 and into early 2020, AMI partnered with Uber to support the upskilling of women driver partners in Kenya and South Africa. As a pilot programme, the 4-month programme focused on supporting independent female entrepreneurs develop skills to grow revenue such as risk management, problem solving, managing cash flow, communication, and setting and achieving goals. This set the stage for something bigger and even more critical when the unexpected Covid-19 crisis hit.

As lockdowns and restrictions emerged, the partnership expanded on the success of the pilot by offering a free virtual learning programme to men and women partner drivers in Kenya and South Africa. This included webinars and access to AMI’s mobile app-based courses and downloadable business tools to help Uber partners navigate the new challenges of the COVID-19 world.

As one of the drivers who signed up for the virtual programme, Mudeyi is now looking to develop more businesses with his new skills, such as a barber shop with a dedicated area for technology needs to support his community. “The space will be home to a printer, copy machines, and a jobs board, a space where community members can access the internet to apply for jobs.”

He’s also drawing on his experience as a semi-professional soccer player and is running the Future Footballers Academy, where Mudeyi helps children and their parents with sports fees and school fees. He says it’s about more than sports, “We want kids to have a positive mentality and be hopeful that whatever the situation and circumstances, that one day they might have education, discipline, and be good students.”

At AMI, we share Uber’s goal to create prosperity and dignity through thriving African businesses. We believe our partnership with Uber has helped entrepreneurs like Mudeyi navigate the Covid season and have a ripple effect in their communities.

As Mudeyi explains: “The money I make from Uber has not only helped me educate my children, but also expand my business and support the children in my community. The change is not just for me but for the life of children in the community as well.”