The Bolt driver who picked me up on Thursday morning this week is a second-year university student. He told me he works in the mornings before his lectures later in the day and makes enough money to cover his transport costs and data bundles. He is, in almost every meaningful sense, a case study in what Kenya’s gig economy has become — and what it is still becoming.

I was heading to the launch of the Bolt Kenya & Ipsos Gig Economy Report, where I would be moderating the media panel discussion. It turned out to be one of the more substantive conversations I have sat in on in a while. Not because the numbers were surprising — some of them were — but because of what they confirm about a structural shift in how Kenyans earn, live, and think about work.

This is my full analysis of what the report found, what the panel discussion added, and what it all means.

Why This Report Matters Right Now

Kenya is heading into an election cycle, the labour market is under sustained pressure, and conversations about platform regulation are intensifying — both locally and globally. Against that backdrop, the Bolt Kenya & Ipsos Gig Economy Report is genuinely useful. It provides the kind of structured, quantitative evidence base that has been missing from what has too often been an ideologically-driven conversation about platform work.

The study, commissioned by Bolt and conducted by Ipsos, covered Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa — the three largest gig economy markets on the continent. For Kenya, it surveyed 250 respondents across major towns and cities at a 95% confidence level, against an estimated 1.5 million gig economy participants. The research spanned nearly three months and combined secondary documentation, focus group discussions, and stakeholder interviews with platform operators, transport associations, and worker associations. Soyinka Witness, Strategy Director at Ipsos Sub-Sahara Africa, led the research and presented the findings at the briefing. His clarity in unpacking the methodology and the market comparisons was one of the highlights of the morning.

It is the first structured, third-party study Bolt has commissioned specifically to contribute data-driven insight to the national conversation on digital platforms and income generation. That context matters: this is not internal platform data dressed up as research. It is independent, methodologically grounded work. As Dimmy Kanyankole, Bolt’s Senior General Manager for East Africa, put it in his remarks: “We could have provided this data without a third party — we have our internal data. But for us to really get the overview, somebody who can go to the street, use the data, discuss and interview with some of the players, so that instead of me coming and saying our drivers are making millions, we can now hear from drivers.”

Segmenting The Gig Economy: Much Bigger Than Ride-Hailing

One of the most important frames the report establishes is that Kenya’s gig economy is not synonymous with ride-hailing — even though that is how it is most commonly discussed publicly. Ipsos segmented the market across five distinct categories: e-commerce (42% of participants), ride-hailing (20%), freelancing (17%), micro-tasks (10%), and remote work (9%).

E-commerce is the dominant category by volume, a fact that gets underreported in the public conversation. The people selling goods through Instagram, selling on Jumia, running WhatsApp-based storefronts — they are the largest single bloc in the gig economy, and they are largely invisible in the mainstream policy debate, which fixates almost entirely on ride-hailing.

Soyinka was careful to flag that these five segments are not mutually exclusive. An individual can be simultaneously active in e-commerce and ride-hailing: “Participation in these segments is not mutually exclusive. I can be e-commerce, but I’m also ride-hailing. So we needed to index the data to get unique accounts around each of these.” This is an important methodological nuance, because aggregate headcount across segments will overcount unique individuals if not properly adjusted.

Mbugua Njihia, the venture builder and digital economy analyst on our panel, made the point vividly: “If you’re selling sneakers and you’re running an e-commerce shop across different social media platforms, you are part of this collective that is generating the 100 billion shillings.” Many people in the room were, by that definition, themselves participants in the gig economy.

Kenya’s Labour Market Context: Why The Gig Economy Fills A Structural Gap

To appreciate the significance of the gig economy’s scale, you need to set it against Kenya’s labour market reality. Kenya’s labour force stands at approximately 23 million people — roughly 50% of the total population. The compound annual growth rate of that labour force from 2013 to present has been significant by regional and global standards, driven largely by a young, urbanizing population entering working age in large numbers each year.

The challenge is that formal employment has not kept pace. The overall unemployment rate has remained relatively stable at around 5–5.4% over time. But the youth unemployment rate tells a very different story: sitting at approximately 11.93%, it is more than double the overall figure. That gap — between a labour force that is growing, and formal employment that cannot absorb it at the same pace — is precisely the structural opening that digital gig platforms have moved into.

As Soyinka noted: “Digital platforms are absorbing new entrants, and that is a good thing within the economy, and how these platforms are contributing to the rapid expansion within the digital labour ecosystem.” Kenya’s gig economy’s 1.5 million participants represent 5–6% of the total Kenyan labour force. That is a meaningful share of productive economic activity, and it is growing.

The Headline Finding: 53% Primary Income, 54% Significant Improvement

The report’s headline finding — that 53% of Kenya’s surveyed ride-hailing participants rely on the platform as their primary source of income — is striking, but it becomes even more significant when placed in cross-market context.

In Nigeria, the equivalent figure is 55%. But there, gig work is widely perceived as supplementary income — a way to top up earnings from other sources, not the core livelihood. In South Africa, only 30% of ride-hailing participants describe it as their primary income. Kenya’s elevated dependency reflects several compounding advantages: early development of digital infrastructure, the role that mobile financing played in getting vehicles onto the road from around 2017–2018, and a decade of market maturation during which drivers have made deliberate, long-term choices to commit to the platform.

The remaining 47% of Kenyan ride-hailing participants use the platform as secondary income. That means the entire driver base — primary and secondary combined — is substantively reliant on the platform economy in some form. When you ask how deeply people depend on ride-hailing, the income breakdown within the primary income group is particularly revealing: 20% of participants derive more than 75% of their total household income from ride-hailing, 24% derive between 50 and 75%, and 22% derive between 25 and 50%. As Soyinka observed during the presentation: “There is quite a huge dependence on ride-hailing as a primary source of income in this market.”

Further data reinforces this picture of commitment. Roughly 50% of Kenya’s ride-hailing participants have been active in the space for over a year, and 24% for six to twelve months. These are not people who tried it once and moved on. They are workers who have made a sustained, calculated decision that platform work is viable, and who have structured their lives and livelihoods around it.

During the panel discussion, I asked Mbugua Njihia specifically about what to make of those retention figures — whether 52% staying over 12 months signals a maturing market, or whether the income volatility data raises deeper structural concerns. His answer was one of the most textured of the morning. He started by contextualizing the volatility: “Some people look at it as a stop-gap measure. If your driver this morning was a university student who’s got classes in the afternoon, I do expect that once they’re done studying, they’re going to transition — so that volatility is expected.” But he was equally clear about what is happening at the other end of the spectrum: “We are still suffering from the vestiges of something like COVID. Not everyone has recovered. And the economy gives people dignity — gives you a soft landing to say, let me try this thing, because I have a standard of living I need to maintain. As I’m waiting for the next thing, let me do this — and then you find out that you can afford it.”

What happens when people find they can afford it? Mbugua’s answer was direct: “If you’re in that upper quartile, you settle in and find your home in this space. You figure out — if I’m to make 400K, what do I need to do? You upskill yourself in terms of being a business person.” He then made a prediction I found compelling: with Kenya heading into an election year, businesses tend to contract and retrench, pushing more people toward flexible income options. “I dare say many people will find their home there, and then that number will jump — 60, 70%, who knows. It will be the gig country of the world.” That is not empty optimism. It is a structural observation about what happens when formal employment becomes less reliable and a credible alternative already exists at scale.

On livelihoods, the findings are even more compelling. Respondents were asked to rate on a scale of one to five how their overall standard of living had changed since joining the gig economy. 54% percent reported a significant improvement. A further 44% reported that it had improved slightly. Combined, 98% indicated positive improvement. Soyinka’s comment on this was understated in the best possible way: “You have a 98% figure saying that yes, there’s improvement in my life thanks to joining this economy.”

What Motivates Gig Participation — & What It Means In Practice

The motivations driving gig economy participation vary meaningfully across the three markets studied, and those differences carry important implications for how platforms and policymakers should engage with each.

In Kenya, the dominant motivation is financial independence and self-sufficiency — cited by 28% of respondents as their primary reason for joining. The ability to earn on their own terms, including flexible working hours, was cited by 21%. In South Africa, the leading motivation is skill development and professional growth. In Nigeria, it is lifestyle fit — the sense that gig work slots into how people already structure their time. These are not superficial differences. They reflect divergent relationships to formal employment, divergent levels of trust in institutional income sources, and divergent cultural relationships to entrepreneurship.

What brings those motivations to life are the verbatim testimonials from participants in the study. From Kenya: “I earn money independently and work at my desired time. I have more disposable income. I moved to my rented house. I’m able to pay off my debts.” From South Africa: “I get to earn extra income and am not entirely dependent on my salary. It helps me be financially independent.” From Nigeria: “I was unemployed and not able to meet my monthly expenses. Now I’m able to pay. It has extra cash and helps pay for essentials like utility bills.”

These are not abstract data points. They describe real changes in real households. One participant from Kenya’s delivery segment captured it simply: “Through this platform, I can pay rent and school fees — something I couldn’t do before.”

The Real Earnings Story: KES 63K Average, But Read The Distribution

The average gross monthly earning for a Bolt driver in Kenya is KES 63,000. Dimmy confirmed during his remarks that this figure closely mirrors Bolt’s own internal data, which adds meaningful credibility to the Ipsos methodology. But the average obscures a distribution that is worth understanding in full.

Bolt’s top 20% of drivers average KES 183,000 per month — approximately 5x the Kenyan average salary and close to 6x the minimum wage. The single highest-earning driver on the platform earns KES 400,000 gross per month. When I noted in the panel that this is “literally a very senior professional salary in most corporate businesses,” it was not hyperbole. That figure competes with senior management compensation at many mid-sized Kenyan companies.

The variance is explained by three variables: hours committed (primary drivers versus part-time drivers), vehicle category (economy versus comfort versus XL), and driver quality metrics — acceptance rate, completion rate, and ratings — all of which determine how many trips the algorithm routes to a given driver. The Bolt platform currently has over 44,000 active drivers across both four-wheelers and two-wheelers, including electric bikes.

Dimmy’s explanation of the earnings spread was instructive: “What really determines the earning is the number of hours you’re willing to put in, the quality of you as a driver — how many trips are being pushed more to you, and how many of them you’re accepting and finishing — and also the category, because you will pay maybe 200 on a boda but for the same distance on a car you pay maybe 400.”

At the floor, two-wheel operators average around KES 6,000 per month — a figure that reflects part-time participation and lower per-trip pricing rather than a failing business model. At the ceiling, committed primary drivers in the comfort or XL categories are building genuinely meaningful livelihoods. Income volatility, flagged at 62% across the study, remains the most significant structural challenge — and addressing it through value-added services, improved financing access, and operating cost reduction is where the most important near-term policy and platform work lies.

The Economic Footprint: KES 100 Billion & A Multiplier Effect That Goes Further

The total gig economy in Kenya generates approximately KES 100 billion ($1.029 billion) annually. This represents roughly 5% of GDP as a proportion of total economic output — a figure that Soyinka was careful to frame as a revenue figure, not a full economic contribution measure. “If we’re to look at the externalities — mobile payments, documents, all those things — when you do the multiplier effect to calculate the contribution to the economy, it is significantly higher than even the revenue generated by the economy,” he explained.

That multiplier effect is real and tangible. Every shilling earned by a ride-hailing driver circulates through the local economy: fuel stations, mechanics, insurance providers, food vendors near staging areas, the landlords of the rooms drivers rent, the schools where their children study. Platform income is not abstract income — it is deeply embedded in urban and peri-urban economic ecosystems.

Beyond direct economic contribution, the report also documents meaningful gains in financial and digital inclusion attributable to gig economy participation. Across the broader East African region, the percentage of the population with formal savings accounts has risen to approximately 35%. Mobile money accounts grew by 13 percentage points between 2021 and 2022 alone — reaching around 40% penetration — and the gig economy is identified as a meaningful contributor to that shift. As Soyinka noted: “Digital solutions and the gig economy, and the outcomes of it, have contributed to this. It might not be the only one, but it’s contributed significantly.”

The financial inclusion dimension is particularly important because it creates compounding benefits. Drivers and gig workers who enter formal savings and mobile money ecosystems gain access to credit, insurance, and investment products that were previously unavailable to them. The gig economy is not just providing income — it is pulling participants further into the formal financial system, with all the long-term livelihood benefits that entails.

Four Ways Ride-Hailing Changes Lives: The Impact Framework

The report identifies four primary dimensions through which ride-hailing creates tangible impact for participants, grounded in both the quantitative survey and the focus group discussions.

The first is financial empowerment and stability. Ride-hailing provides dependable income streams that function as both primary livelihood and income complement. For participants in a market where formal employment opportunities are limited, the platform offers a real alternative rather than a theoretical one.

The second is flexibility and opportunity creation. The ability to set one’s own hours and scale income up or down by adjusting availability is consistently cited as one of the most valued features of platform work. For women managing childcare obligations, for students managing lecture schedules, for individuals managing multiple sources of income, flexibility is not a soft benefit — it is a core economic feature that changes how people are able to participate in productive work.

The third is skills, confidence, and entrepreneurship. Working as a ride-hailing driver is, for many participants, their first experience running what is effectively a micro-enterprise. Managing a vehicle, building ratings, optimising routes, managing finances — these are genuine business skills. Soyinka highlighted this from the focus groups: participants reported that the experience builds practical skills and the confidence to operate independently.

The fourth is economic progress and improved living standards. The headline numbers — 54% significant improvement, 98% overall improvement — are the macro expression of this. At the household level, it manifests as rent paid, school fees settled, debts cleared, and a gradual accumulation of assets and stability.

Kenya’s Policy Environment: What’s Already In Place

One dimension of the report that deserves more attention than it typically receives is Kenya’s existing policy progress. Kenya has not waited for global frameworks to shape local responses — it has been actively building an enabling environment for platform work, and the report documents several specific interventions.

Fuel subsidies and discount schemes have been negotiated to reduce operating costs for ride-hailing drivers. Taxi ownership support programmes have been implemented. Maximum platform commission caps have been mandated, and transparent terms of platform participation have been enforced. Licensing and data control frameworks have been put in place. These are not cosmetic measures — they represent a policy architecture that has been deliberately constructed to support the sector.

The report also notes that Kenya is increasingly recognized as a regional and global leader in the gig economy, particularly in the two-wheeler and electric vehicle (EV) spaces. Kenya’s two-wheeler ride-hailing penetration is among the highest of any market globally. That is a competitive advantage worth preserving — and it is a function of the enabling environment that has been built over the past decade, not despite policy intervention, but because of thoughtful policy intervention.

The Policy Conversation: Light Touch Or Comprehensive Framework?

The most substantive portion of the panel discussion centered on what comes next in the policy conversation. Kenneth Anye, Bolt’s Director of Public Policy for Africa and International Markets, brought a grounded, clear-eyed perspective. He has spent eight years shaping Bolt’s regulatory engagement across the continent — first as Head of Public Policy Africa, now in a broader international markets role — and he knows how quickly well-intentioned regulation can stifle sectors it claims to protect.

His central argument was consistent throughout: “53% saying this is their primary source of income — if we grow that, it’s a sign of commitment. It means people are leveraging this. Policy formulation should not stifle it. We have seen across where, when policy comes in and regulations come in and they stifle the sector, it streams the sector.”

The positive case he made rests on the primary-income and livelihood improvement data: “98% say the standard of living has improved, with 54% indicating that is massive improvement. All of this is the signalling to us, the players in the market, including policymakers — how do we protect that, and how do we grow that?”

What Bolt is specifically advocating for, Kenneth explained, is a comprehensive regulatory framework — not single-issue interventions. The critique of single-issue regulation is sharp: it tackles commission caps or pricing floors in isolation, without addressing the upstream variables that actually determine what a driver takes home. Vehicle financing costs, fuel prices, data costs, insurance premiums — none of those are within Bolt’s control, but all of them determine net earnings. “It shouldn’t be a single issue, variable inputs, because what the driver takes home has different elements that contribute to that take home. We have to look at it holistically — a comprehensive framework which tackles all of these challenges.”

I made the comparison during the discussion to mobile money’s trajectory in Kenya — where a deliberately light regulatory touch allowed M-PESA to scale to the point where it now underpins virtually every aspect of the economy. Kenneth agreed: “The gig economy has shown the capacity to absorb the side that the formal sector cannot. Let’s not stifle it.”

Kenneth also offered a framing of Bolt’s broader contribution that I thought was worth capturing. When asked by reporters how Bolt sees its role in the regulatory conversation, he said: “When I talk to regulators and they ask about the vision for Bolt, I always say — we democratized transport. We are always adapting, innovating, and disrupting in a positive manner. We started off with cash payments when we came in, and that was transformative — it meant it was not just the 15% with a credit card who could use the service. It spread the ecosystem. The numbers we’re seeing on ride-hailing and the impact in the gig economy, we contributed to that by opening up that space.” That framing — democratization rather than disruption — is a more accurate description of what platform mobility has actually done to access and participation in Kenya’s transport economy.

Safety: 12% of Bolt’s Workforce, & Why That Matters

Safety was flagged as a concern by 55% of platform participants in the report, and it is one of the areas where Bolt has made the most substantive investments. Dimmy walked through the layers in detail during the panel discussion.

The SOS button — which connects drivers and passengers within a minute to a dedicated safety company that can dispatch security or medical support — has become widely used, including by people not on the Bolt platform who know the button exists. Trip Monitoring tracks movement and flags anomalies: if a trip scheduled to take 30 minutes has a vehicle stationary for an extended period, the safety team reaches out to both driver and passenger. Trip Share allows passengers to share live trip location with trusted contacts, even if the phone subsequently dies. And driver vetting goes beyond basic identification to include certificates of good conduct.

The headline figure: approximately 12% of Bolt’s total workforce is dedicated to safety. For a mobility company, that is a significant allocation, and it reflects a genuine institutional commitment rather than a compliance checkbox. As Dimmy put it: “That tells you how the company is really interested and invested in safety platforms.”

The Gender Gap: 97% Male, 3% Female — & What Needs To Change

This is the most uncomfortable finding in the report, and the panelists did not shy away from it.

Ninety-seven percent of Kenya’s ride-hailing participants are male. Three percent are female. Dimmy acknowledged both the gap and the trajectory: “Three years ago, it was almost 0%. So it’s still small, but at least it shows some size to grow.”

Kenneth offered the structural diagnosis: the barriers are upstream of the platform itself. “They’re vehicle finance, social norms — the question about women being in that space — and challenges around perception of safety. If you look at each of those challenges, there is a policy angle to it. What we are doing is a drop in the ocean. With the support of policymakers, we can expand that.”

Bolt’s own interventions include a female-only ride category — the only top platform in the market to offer this — which both attracts female drivers and gives passengers who prefer female drivers a specific product to access. Vehicle financing access is explicitly gender-neutral: any driver who meets the experience criteria and wants to finance a vehicle, whether four-wheel or two-wheel, can access Bolt’s financing partner programme, which has so far co-financed over 4,000 vehicles in the Nairobi market.

The broader inclusion question — geographic as well as gender — was addressed powerfully by Mbugua Njihia, who made the point that rural inclusion cannot simply be a diluted urban model. It requires rethinking the services category entirely: hyper-local skilled trades, beauty services, home repairs, healthcare navigation — services that are deeply needed outside Nairobi and that can be delivered through verified platform ecosystems. “Can that work in Kisumu? Yes. Can it work in Wajir? Yes,” Mbugua said. The gig economy’s core value proposition — trust brokered through platform verification — travels.

Mbugua also made a point that I found particularly sharp around financial inclusion: many gig workers default to mobile money for their earnings, but mobile money payment history does not translate well into credit scoring for formal financial providers. If earnings were routed more directly through bank accounts, “almost automatically, it’s like your salon suddenly — the bank has visibility and can give you a loan and then start sorting out the issue of vehicle ownership.” That structural friction between mobile money and formal credit markets is one of the most under-appreciated barriers to inclusive growth in the gig economy.

EVs, Tokenisation, & The Road To 2028

The report projects that Kenya’s gig economy workforce could grow to 300,000 by 2028, from its current active driver base. That trajectory is driven by three converging forces: continued vehicle financing expansion, accelerating EV adoption, and the formalization of the sector as platform work becomes a deliberate, long-term career choice rather than a transitional one.

Bolt has already co-financed over 4,000 vehicles, representing 8–9% of its active Nairobi fleet. Dimmy projected that this could reach 20% by 2028. On gender, the ambition is to move from the current 4–5% female drivers (Bolt’s internal figure, slightly higher than the 3% in the broader study) to 8–10% by 2028.

The EV dimension is particularly compelling for Kenya specifically. As approximately 93% of Kenya’s electricity generation coming from renewable sources, the economics of electric two-wheelers and four-wheelers are increasingly favourable for drivers focused on reducing operating costs. Reduced fuel dependency translates directly into improved net earnings — which addresses the income volatility problem at its root. Kenya’s existing strength in two-wheeler EV adoption is already notable by global standards, and the report identifies the continued growth of that segment as a key driver of sector expansion.

The most forward-looking contribution to the discussion came from Mbugua, who raised the possibility of real-world asset tokenization as a vehicle financing mechanism. The concept: if ride-platform assets — vehicles, charging infrastructure, EV swap stations — could be tokenized, both riders and drivers could become micro-investors in the ecosystem itself. “You and I can participate and say, I know that my ride is costing 800, but at the end of the day, I’m going to get something coming back to me as an investor,” he explained. “Suddenly the gig economy becomes the anchor income, and we all become investors in our own transport ecosystem.”

It is a forward-looking idea, but not an unrealistic one given the pace of development in Kenya’s digital assets space. The government released its first draft Virtual Assets Bill for public participation just two days before this event. Whether tokenised platform assets become a financing mechanism in the near term remains to be seen, but the conceptual framework is sound: align the incentives of riders and drivers by giving both a stake in the ecosystem’s growth.

The Media Q&A: What They Wanted To Know

During the panel discussion wrapped, the floor was opened to reporters. Three questions came in, and each one cut to a different aspect of the sector’s future. I think they deserve to be captured in full because they represent the questions that were front of mind for Kenya’s technology and business media community at this moment.

On regulatory preparation and what good policy looks like

A reporter from Kenyans.co.ke asked Dimmy and the panel how Bolt is preparing for changes in the regulatory landscape, and what specific policies — from government or the sector itself — would best support the next stage of growth. Dimmy deferred to Kenneth, who gave what I thought was the clearest articulation of Bolt’s regulatory philosophy of the entire morning.

Kenneth acknowledged that conversations about reviewing the regulatory framework are ongoing, and that Bolt has been part of those conversations from the beginning. His message was consistent with everything he had said during the panel: “The signalling from this research is — this is our main source of income, our livelihood has improved 98%, we have some concerns but we are happy with the sector. When we are engaging government, that is the message we are taking.” He pushed back firmly on single-issue framing: “If we talk about net earnings and start investigating further — financing, fuel pricing — these are exogenous factors which are not unique to the platforms. We don’t determine fuel price. Geopolitics has determined it for us. How do we make sure we create an enabling environment? It’s a partnership.” His closing ask was precise: a comprehensive socio-economic impact assessment of how any proposed regulation would affect the full ecosystem — not just headline commission numbers — before decisions are made.

On the income gap and whether it is sustainable

An unnamed reporter raised the question of the earnings spread directly: with the gap between low earners and high earners so wide, is it really sustainable? Dimmy’s answer broke down the variance in a way that reframed the question usefully. The spread is not a sign of dysfunction — it is a function of choice, category, and commitment. Primary drivers who give the platform 80-plus hours a week and operate in premium categories will always earn multiples of what a student doing three hours a day in an economy category earns. “What really determines the earning is the number of hours you’re willing to put in, the quality of you as a driver, and also the category.” The 44,000-plus active drivers on the platform include people at radically different stages of life with radically different income needs — and the platform accommodates all of them. The gap is not a problem to be closed. It is the flexibility value proposition made visible in earnings data.

On crypto, stablecoins, and the future of payments

Daniel, a reporter in the room, raised the timing of Kenya’s first draft Virtual Assets Bill — released for public participation just two days before this event — and asked whether Bolt would consider adopting stablecoins or crypto as payment methods. It was the most forward-looking question of the session, and the panel’s three responses together painted a coherent picture of where this could go.

Dimmy was characteristically pragmatic: “Bolt is a very innovative company. When we onboard a payment method, we will onboard a payment method that is quite widely used by the people. When we realised most drivers were unbanked in the traditional banking ecosystem, we enabled mobile money. When we get to a level where most people — either passengers or drivers — are using stablecoins, we will be able to involve them as a payment method.” No ideology, no resistance, just a clear adoption framework anchored in actual usage patterns.

Kenneth connected it back to Bolt’s broader identity: “If you look at the journey of transformation we brought to the market — we democratized transport. That concept is why we are always adapting and innovating. The new payment options that are coming up, we’re looking at them actively — how we can bring them in and localize them, because they have to work in the local context.”

Mbugua took the conversation to its most ambitious destination, making the case for real-world asset tokenization as a vehicle financing mechanism: “The one thing for crypto, outside of blockchain, outside of payments, is real-world asset tokenization. If ride platform assets — vehicles, EV swap stations, charging infrastructure — could be tokenised, you and I can participate and say, I know that my ride is costing Kes. 800, but at the end of the day, I’m going to get something coming back to me as an investor.” His vision: if Bolt has five million unique riders in Kenya, all five million could in principle become micro-investors in the transport ecosystem. “At the end of the month, at the end of the year, I get some sort of return — with Bolt, for example, managing the option. That would be massive.” It is speculative but structurally coherent — and it points to a possible future where the alignment between platform, driver, and rider interests is built into the financial architecture of the ecosystem itself.

Discussion Panel Closing Summary

Before the event wrapped, I offered my own synthesis of the morning’s discussion for the room. I want to capture it here because it reflects how I was reading the conversation in real time, as moderator.

The gig economy is driving over KES 100 Billion worth of economic impact. It is a youth employment engine — my own driver that morning, a university student, is a living data point. Over 150,000 jobs are actively operating in this space in Kenya. The key takeaways I offered the room were: flexibility is the core value proposition, and different types of people are participating for different reasons with different objectives — many of them with livelihoods fundamentally linked to the outcome. The KES 45,000 monthly average across all participants is a meaningful number. Safety investments from Bolt have been substantial and genuinely multi-layered, with up to 12% of the workforce focused on it. The gender and rural gaps remain real problems that need targeted action beyond awareness. The most important forward-looking obligation is this: platforms, regulators, and gig workers must collectively build the next 300,000 jobs that are projected to come by 2028. That is not a platform task alone. It is a shared responsibility.

Key Takeaways from the Bolt Kenya & Ipsos Gig Economy Report

After spending a morning at the launch, moderating the panel discussion, and now having gone through the full research and transcript material in detail, here is what I think the report’s most important implications are:

The “side hustle” narrative is empirically dead. 

Fifty-three percent primary income dependency, KES 100 billion in annual economic activity, and 1.5 million workers is not a side-hustle story. It is a mainstream labour market story that needs to be engaged with as such by policymakers, media, and the broader business community.

Income volatility is the sector’s most urgent structural challenge. 

The 62% income volatility figure is the number that should be driving the most urgent platform and policy work. Addressing it requires a multi-variable approach — financing, fuel costs, data costs, insurance — not a single-lever intervention. Kenneth’s comprehensive framework argument is the right frame.

Financial inclusion is a compounding benefit that goes beyond income.

The shift to formal savings, the 13-percentage-point growth in mobile money accounts, and the potential for bank-settled earnings to unlock credit access — these are not incidental outcomes of gig economy participation. They are structural upgrades to how participants interact with the broader economy, and they have long-term household wealth implications.

The gender gap is a policy failure as much as a platform failure. 

3% female participation in ride-hailing is not a number that platforms can fix alone. It requires upstream policy interventions on financing access, safety infrastructure, and social norm change. The conversation needs to move from awareness to action.

EVs could be the single biggest lever for improving driver livelihoods.

Reduced fuel dependency equals reduced operating costs equals improved net earnings. In a country with 93% renewable electricity, the EV transition in the gig economy is not a green marketing exercise — it is a genuine earnings improvement programme for drivers.

Kenya is a leader in this space globally, and should act like it. 

The report identifies Kenya as a benchmark market for two-wheeler and EV gig economy engagement, and for platform-supported financial inclusion. That leadership position is an asset that deserves to be defended and extended — through smart regulation, continued infrastructure investment, and an enabling environment that keeps the sector growing.

Concluding Perspectives

What struck me most about the Bolt Kenya & Ipsos Gig Economy Report is not any single data point. It is the cumulative picture they paint of an economy that has matured faster than the policy conversation around it.

When ride-hailing launched in Kenya a decade ago, it was widely characterized as informal work — something people did between real jobs. That framing has not kept pace with reality. When 53% of participants call it their primary income, when the top earners are making KES 400,000 a month, when 98% report improved living standards, and when the sector is generating over KES 100 billion in annual economic activity — this is not a side hustle economy. It is a primary economy that deserves a primary-level policy framework.

The conversations that are going to happen in the next 12–18 months — with an election year approaching and platform regulation actively being debated — will shape this sector for a long time. Mbugua made the warning plainly: “From a policy perspective, you’re not just being populist. We need to think deeply about policy repercussions in the longer term.” That is good advice for any policymaker reaching for an easy narrative in an election season.

The data from this report should anchor those conversations. The ask from Bolt, from Ipsos, and frankly from the gig workers whose voices are captured in the report, it’s not complicated: build a policy framework that enhances the sector, not one that constricts it in pursuit of a political talking point.

My driver on Thursday morning was already living in that future. The question is whether our policymakers are ready to meet him there.

Download The Report

You can access the full Bolt Kenya & Ipsos Gig Economy Report via the SlideShare link below. I strongly recommend going through the complete deck — the regional comparisons, the methodology notes, and the financial inclusion data in particular add significant depth beyond what any summary can capture.

The Bolt Kenya & Ipsos Gig Economy Report on SlideShare