The rise of Abuja’s female cabbies

When Wunmi (not her full name) went broke, she did something her friends didn’t believe or approve. She jumped into her car and allowed herself to be waved down for lifts. Wunmi began “cab driving” with her Corolla. She is part of a growing trend: Women pushing the boundaries to earn income. “I was looking […]

When Wunmi (not her full name) went broke, she did something her friends didn’t believe or approve. She jumped into her car and allowed herself to be waved down for lifts.

Wunmi began “cab driving” with her Corolla. She is part of a growing trend: Women pushing the boundaries to earn income.

“I was looking at my car, every month servicing it, and it got up to the point where I didn’t have money to service it,” Wunmi said.

“Instead of dying of hunger, I said, let me just help myself…use what I have to earn a living.”

“At least now I have food to eat. When I am going home, I buy tomatoes, peppers and cook something to eat. And I am saving money to send home to my mum. She is diabetic.”

A graduate of French language, Wunmi worked as an interpreter helping French speakers get along with proceedings in English language. But interpretation jobs were around only when there are conferences. She needed something regular.

She didn’t have a job, she had been home since July without work, and no job offer was coming up, Wunmi recalls.

The idea for a “kabu-kabu” slowly crept into her head as she watched her car. Her friends wouldn’t hear her idea out.

“My friends discouraged me from day one. They said, ‘God forbid, how can you use your car for ‘kabu kabu,’” she recalled.

“The first day I listened to them but when I became very hungry, so hungry I had a sore in my stomach, I told my sister, ‘I’m hungry, I don’t have any money’. I just took my car and started calling people. People responded and entered.”

That’s how her business started. She followed up by introducing herself to plazas and leaving behind calling cards with her contacts.

She works, picking up and dropping off passengers through the streets of Abuja for 11 hours a day: from as early as 6am and ending her day before dark to stay safe.

“I have had plenty reactions, some negative, some positive,” she said. Her parents still don’t know what she does for a living and are better off not knowing where she gets their regular allowance.

“I once picked a passenger for a drop service. We bargained N500 and the man, at the end of the ride, gave me N2,000. He said he couldn’t believe I could have the courage,” Wunmi remembers.

She is glad she didn’t get into prostitution, and is instead on a job she can do in broad daylight with some dignity.

“This is new Nigeria. I have to humble myself and do something different from what I planned for my life,” Wummi quipped.