The sight of a woman driving a taxi is something we don’t see every day. The taxi business is male dominated given the tough conditions that come with the job like working long odd hours. And traditionally, society still frowns at a woman who works as a taxi driver.

I set out to track a female cab driver and the search led me to Umubano Hotel. I didn’t find her as she had taken a customer and my request for her contact was treated with suspicion. It was a sign that her colleagues look out for her, especially because she is the only female driver at the stage.

Eventually one of the colleagues called her and informed her about ‘some people looking for her’.

When I eventually met the 36-year-old Amina Umuhoza, she didn’t look bothered. She cut a posture of satisfaction and passion for what she does. Umuhoza is one of the very few women in the taxi business in Kigali city.

This is a job that has put food on her table for the last six years.

"I have been doing this job for the last six years. It’s paying off. I take care of my four children and also have money for upkeep,” Umuhoza reveals.

Her day’s planning depends on the appointments she gets from customers.

"Sometimes I can have a client who has a flight as early as 5am and will need me to drop them at the airport. In that case, I wake up as early as 4am,” she explains.

For one to operate as a taxi driver in Kigali city they have to be part of a cooperative. Umuhoza is the only woman in the ten-member Umubano Gasabo Cooperative.

"Most of my clients are customers of hotels who I have to drop to or pick from the airport. I also go upcountry if I’m hired. I can’t say I have encountered any challenge at work because I know the risks involved in my kind of work. For example I don’t take anyone I don’t know in the night,” Umuhoza explains.

Umuhoza says she risked to get into the taxi business. Her start up capital was Rwf 5.5million which she got as a loan.

"I had to get a loan from the bank to buy the car I am using. I had to write an impressive proposal but it took the bank three months to grant me the loan. I bought the car on April 1, 2008 and I can happily say I paid off the loan and I’m currently ripping from the risk that I took,” Umuhoza says.

Umuhoza adds that it’s the hard times she encountered in life that made her take on the risk of getting a loan to venture in the taxi business.

"I was forcefully married off at the age of 13. My father died when I was five years old while my mother died when I was just 10. My care taker forcefully married me off because he didn’t want to bear the burden of taking me through school. I only have a primary education background,” Umuhoza says.

She attributes her determination and success to a troubled life she endured at a tender age.

"Getting married at a tender age to a man who had another wife is the worst thing that could happen to anyone because we shared the same home with my co-wife. The man was 25 years older than me. I was constantly abused. My husband and co-wife would beat me. I didn’t have anywhere to go. I lived a life of bondage,” Umuhoza sadly recalls.

Umuhoza says that her husband never cared for her children at any stage in their life so she sought alternatives of empowering herself to get out of the life she was living.

"The troubled life always made me think of possible solutions to live a good life with my children. My co-wife left when I was sixteen but the abuse never changed. I was tired. I started attending women empowerment programmes at the district level. I got some money to sell vegetables,” says Umuhoza.

She adds that the profits from the vegetables were not enough forcing her to try her luck at learning how to drive with hope of securing a job as a driver.

"Within 17 days, I had learnt how to drive and secured a driving permit. The sad bit was for eight years, no company hired me because I didn’t have academic qualifications.”

But Umuhoza didn’t give up; she continued to do small jobs until the opportunity for women to access loans surfaced and she jumped for it.

"There were offers by Banque Populaire du Rwanda for women to access loans. One woman could get a loan that was not more than five million Rwandan francs and ten women in a cooperative would get more.

I decided to get a personal loan to avoid the technicalities that come with payment of the loan if you are a group. I used the loan to buy the car that I use for the taxi business,” Umuhoza narrates.

In Rwanda, women have increasingly been empowered to be independent through several programmes.

"Today my children are in boarding school. My eldest son is in senior four along with a son I adopted, the second born is in senior three and the last born is in primary four. I believe education is the best gift I can give to my sons. I want them to live a good life and they can get that through education,” Umuhoza says.

She adds: "Empowering a woman is empowering a family and the community. I never went far in academics but the confidence from women empowerment programmes helped me get out of the abusive marriage. I can express myself in English because most of my customers are foreigners. Today I’m a happy woman.”

doreen.umutesi@newtimes.co.rw