By: John S. Morlu II, CPA
🧠 Bonus Fun Fact: The informal delivery economy in Nairobi is worth millions — and it’s mostly run on trust and airtime. Forget blockchain. Nairobi boda bodas have already perfected the “TrustChain.”
📈 Real Insight: When asked how many deliveries he does in a day, the rider laughed: “Sometimes 10, sometimes 2, sometimes none. Depends if my phone has airtime.” That’s right. No calls, no gigs. A multi-million dollar informal economy riding on prepaid minutes.
🌍 Global Perspective: In the U.S., delivery apps are built on APIs, CRM systems, and real-time tracking. In Nairobi? It’s vibes, intuition, and occasionally, a cousin who knows a guy.
💡 Business Builder Tip: If you ever want to start a business in Africa, start by watching how the streets work. Observe what people are already doing without tech. That’s your MVP (Minimum Viable Product). The only difference between a billion-dollar business and a neighborhood hustle is organization and scale.
😎 Nairobi Logic: Why hire a full-time driver when every boda guy is one WhatsApp message away? It’s not lazy — it’s lean. Why build a warehouse when your inventory lives in traffic?
🔥 Street Quote of the Day: “Bro, delivery is not about distance. It’s about vibes and fuel.”
🎯 Final Satirical Wisdom: Silicon Valley’s trying to build the metaverse. Nairobi already built MetaService™ — a delivery network powered by relationships, not ratings. Beat that, Zuckerberg.
This is why I say: you don’t need VC funding to build the future. You just need to pay attention to what’s already working — and add structure.
Now tell me that’s not worth $350 a desk at a Nairobi co-working space.
🚦 Nairobi Delivery Olympics: The boda boda riders don’t just compete for delivery speed — they compete for navigation skills. Ever seen someone deliver shoes through five matatus, a goat crossing, and two potholes, all while holding a phone with their chin? That’s a Nairobi gold medalist right there.
📞 Airtime Economics 101: Riders often choose jobs not based on distance, but on whether the client will send them enough credit to call the store. One rider joked, “I’ll pick your package only if you M-PESA me 10 bob for a callback. Otherwise, it’s mission aborted.”
📍 Tracking System? Try Hunch-Based GPS: “He lives near that green kiosk behind the mango tree, past the loud church with blue speakers.” Directions in Nairobi are less Google Maps and more local folklore. But somehow, your package still gets there.
📊 Real Numbers, Real Hustle: Kenya has over 1.2 million registered boda bodas. Even if 10% of them make two deliveries a day, that’s 240,000 packages moving daily without a single centralized app. That’s more than some American courier systems on a good day.
🤳 Trust Network 3.0: The guy at the corner butchery knows a guy who knows a guy who delivers for the guy whose brother owns a boutique. That’s how logistics works. LinkedIn? Never heard of it. Here, it’s “StreetKin.”
👀 Nairobi Reality Check: In most countries, the customer tracks the package. In Nairobi, the rider tracks you. “Where are you now? You’re late to receive it!” Delivery works, but the customer is on thin ice.
🧪 Business Insight: This is how you find scalable, profitable ventures in Africa — by organizing what’s already happening. You don’t need to bring “innovation.” You just need to make the existing hustle more efficient and digital.
🎭 Satirical Drop: While the West is building self-driving cars, Nairobi already has self-navigating boda riders who haven’t seen a digital map since high school.
And that, my friends, is why Nairobi is the most innovative city no one at Harvard understands.
About the Author
John is an entrepreneur, strategist, and founder of JS Morlu, LLC, a Virginia based CPA firm with multiple software ventures including www.FinovatePro.com, www.Recksoft.com and www.Fixaars.com . With operations spanning multiple countries, John is on a mission to build global infrastructure that empowers small businesses, entrepreneurs, and professionals to thrive in an increasingly competitive world. He believes in hard truths, smart execution, and the relentless pursuit of excellence. When he’s not writing or building, he’s challenging someone to a productivity contest—or inventing software that automates it.