The ongoing fuel shortage has created a new class of unlikely beneficiaries—motorcycle taxi operators, commonly known as kabaza.
With their smaller tanks, they easily refuel, remove the tanks and sell the commodity at higher prices to desperate motorists.
They then return to the same service station to refuel and repeat the same process, making a hefty profit and somewhat help elongate the cycle of shortage.
A majority of the motorcycle taxi operators, who queue separately at service stations, have since abandoned the business of picking passengers and are now trading full-time in the sale of petrol.
“Why should I bother fetching passengers when I can make easy money?” asked a motorcycle taxi operator who opted for anonymity.
He said: “My target is K15 000. But now I make more than double the target. The rest goes to my pocket.”
He said on a good day, he earns up to K55 000, meaning he goes home with K40 000 while his employer gets K15 000.
Despite his employer not being aware of the ‘side hustle’, the motorcycle taxi operator said he hopes by the time the fuel situation normalises, he will have bought his own motorcycle as he is saving his earnings.
Another motorcycle taxi operator, Joseph Manyamba, who owns the motorbike, said the ongoing fuel scarcity has provided a good opportunity for him to make money.
“In these few months, I have
been able to buy iron sheets for my mother’s house back in the village because I am making more money than before,” he said.
According to Manyamba, on a good day he makes up to K60 000, more than the K15 000 he used to earn prior to the fuel scarcity.
The two motorcycle taxi operators said they sell the fuel to desperate motorists at K6 000 per litre.
The duo could, however, not be drawn to disclose if fuel service station attendants benefit from their trade.
While the two sell the commodity at such prices, the recommended pump price for petrol is K2 530 per litre while diesel is selling at K2 734 per litre.
A third motorcycle taxi operator, Heston Ng’ambi, said picking up passengers is no longer attractive.
Ng’ambi, who owns his motorcycle, said he anticipates buying another motorcycle from the same earnings.
He said: “Some of my customers are minibus operators and I ensure that my tank is always full so that when they call me, I am able to supply them. I ensure I refuel as fast as I can, waiting for another customer.”
Oftentimes, motorcycle taxi operators have clashed with frustrated motorists, who spend longer hours waiting for fuel in some fuel service stations.
Consumer rights activist John Kapito in his reaction to the situation on Wednesday said Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) needs to act on the situation and treat it with a sense of urgency.
“This has been observed many times at fuel service stations that there is a motorcycle syndicate controlling the fuel market, assisted and facilitated by the fuel attendants who make it hard to stop and it is well-established,” he said.
However, Nation on Sunday could not independently verify the claims.
But Kapito emphasised that Mera, in collaboration with fuel service station owners, needs to put in place systems that would stop the ongoing practice by the motorcycle taxi operators.
In a written response on Wednesday, Mera spokesperson Fitina Khonje, however, shoved the
blame on fuel service stations for condoning such practices by the motorcycle taxi operators.
She said it is incumbent upon fuel service stations to ensure that such practices are not being done.
Khonje said: “Service stations are expected to be vigilant in ensuring equitable access to fuel. Some service stations have been reprimanded over such acts.”
The current fuel crisis started in November 2024 as foreign exchange scarcity resulted in fuel importers failing to pay suppliers.
Mera data shows that Malawi uses 10.5 million litres each of diesel and petrol per day, which means the country spends $600 million (about K1 trillion) on fuel importation per year.
In a televised national address in November 2024, President Lazarus Chakwera said his administration was mooting a government-to-government fuel deal with the United Arab Emirates with more flexible payment arrangements to avert perennial fuel stock-outs which worsened in the previous year.
The first consignment of trucks carrying fuel under the arrangement started arriving on January 11 2025 through Songwe Border Post in Karonga District. By January 18 2025, at least 300 trucks carrying the fuel had arrived in Malawi.
But despite the arrival of the trucks, with anticipation that they would ease the fuel scarcity, fuel service stations have been running out of the commodity, resulting in motorists spending more than eight hours in fuel queues.
In its January 2025 Malawi Economic Monitor published on January 30 2025, the World Bank cautioned the Malawi Government against the government-to-government deal on the basis that such arrangements for commodities such as fuel have potential to lock government into paying fixed prices significantly above the global price
