Cape Town South Africa, 5th September 2024 – Shuma Technologies, an emerging on-demand technology solutions development, management and distribution company, is driving a revolution in sustainable mobility across Africa. Temwani Kalea, Co-Founder and Group CFO of Shuma Technologies, recently shared the company’s vision and progress with Elodie Delagnea, Investment Projects Lead at the Smarter Mobility Africa Summit.
“We are largely focussing on bridging the socio-economic and digital divide in Africa,” explains Kalea. “We started in 2021 by understanding market and industry dynamics through applied research and have successfully completed our viability pilot program in 2023. We are now poised to become a leading player in the market.”
Recognising the critical need to address the socio-economic and digital divides, Shuma Technologies has partnered with a local EV manufacturing company. “We decided to partner with an EV manufacturing company that has a track record of manufacturing over 7,000 vehicles that have been distributed across Africa that has developed ride-hailing market ready vehicles with our direct inputs into the designs,” says Kalea. “They have just established a plant in the North West Province, and we’re tackling both the niche market of environmentally conscious consumers, as well as making mass passenger mobility accessible.”
Shuma Technologies has also developed a unique approach to empower its drivers. “We have created a co-ownership program where drivers are not just employees,” notes Kalea. “They become co-owners of the business, fostering a sense of shared responsibility, ownership, and long-lasting benefits for their families.”
This model is crucial to address the common issue of driver disenfranchisement in the region. “In South Africa, we saw that drivers did not have a direct line of communication with management or a way to voice their concerns,” notes Kalea. “So we decided to create a more human-centric system where drivers are empowered to share ownership of the company.”
Shuma Technologies’ commitment to driver empowerment goes hand-in-hand with its commitment to sustainability. “We’re committed to providing high-incentive and high-reward opportunities for drivers,” says Kalea. “Our business model includes a focus on driver safety and well-being, with benefits like insurance and funeral cover, as well as a commitment to promoting environmental consciousness. We’re also working with environmentally conscious companies to promote sustainable practices.”
In addition to their commitment to driver empowerment, Shuma Technologies has integrated an e-commerce platform called Shuma Eats, along with Shuma Pay, a fully integrated fintech platform. “We’re offering a making the Shuma Drive app a multi-functional mobile application that offer a wide range of services within a single platform making access to essential services optimal,” says Kalea.
Shuma Technologies’ innovative approach is making a significant impact. “We’ve completed our viability pilot project as of the end of last November,” says Kalea. “We piloted the service in a small location in the West Rang region of Gauteng with a handful of drivers. The results emphatically validated not only the superiority of our technology platform but also the wider acceptance of our brand as Shuma means “work” in Vendha. We saw over 13,500 orders placed through our platform, 4,680 fulfilled trips, over 900 passengers taking an average of 4 rides. Even though, through our data analytics half of these passengers took more than 25 trips each with two loyal clients taking over a 100 trips each. Shuma works!.”
“We’re projecting to digitise the mobility of 4,000 employees at a major mining company, creating 430 direct job for our drivers with a direct introduction of 300 EV’s. We are projecting to scale this to over 3,500 EV’s in the next 18 months depending largely on the adoption rate in our corporate environment,” says Kalea. “This is a niche market development strategy, but we’re allowing the mass market to follow.
“The journey just hasn’t ended here. We are at advanced stages in rolling out in neighboring Eswatini with a team of vibrant individuals sharing our vision with direct partnerships with mobile network operators, taxi associations and government,” stated Kalea.
Shuma Technologies’ success is a testament to the company’s commitment to sustainable mobility, driver empowerment, and bridging the socio-economic and digital divides in Africa. The company is poised to continue to make a lasting impact in the years to come.
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